


Emerald City Etiquette

by princemito



Series: Seattle AU [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alcohol, Asahi's birthday, Light Angst, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Seattle AU, Swearing, Trans Character, barista tanaka, barista tsukishima, bookstore clerk asahi, bookstore clerk daichi, bookstore clerk suga, bookstore manager ukai, grad student noya, waitress yachi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-04-25 01:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4942105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princemito/pseuds/princemito
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>24-year-old Asahi Azumane works in a used bookstore in Seattle, near the University of Washington campus, where Yuu Nishinoya is attending graduate school and is almost never without coffee. The two meet and end up dating. There are a lot of cute date locales in Seattle!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Asahi Azumane was crouched down putting some new books on the back shelves when his coworker appeared at the end of the aisle.

“He’s back,” Daichi Sawamura said. “Suga saw him coming. It’s your turn to stop him.” 

Asahi’s shoulders sagged as he stood up, leaving the box only half-emptied on the floor. Ever since classes started, this guy had been coming by the used bookstore fairly regularly. He was small and peppy and almost always had coffee. Koushi Sugawara had seen him the first time. The unknown customer had made it five feet into the store before getting excited about something, nearly spilling his coffee everywhere. Ever since, the staff had been on the lookout for him and took turns turning him away.

Asahi left the floppy cardboard box on the floor and went toward the front door. Suga snickered as Asahi passed him and went out through the open door.

The short young man was of course holding a cup from the Starbucks at the next intersection. He had been quickly browsing the discount books that were displayed on carts out on the sidewalk.

Asahi stood in the doorway, taking up a large portion of the frame. The wannabe-customer tried to dodge around him to enter the shop.

“No drinks allowed,” he said, his voice unusually firm. He had a lot of practice for this situation.

“Just this one time, let me in, please. I’ll be super careful, I promise!”

Asahi shook his head, his arms crossed over his chest. He stared down at the other young man who was nearly a foot shorter.

There was no doubt that he was a student; he looked young enough, he had faint bags under his eyes from not enough sleep and too much coffee, and he had a black and green patterned backpack that looked like it had been difficult to zip. He looked at the coffee in his hand and then the watch on his other wrist, and then he began to tremble slightly with the decision that faced him. His eyes shot to Asahi and he asked, “Can I leave it out here?”

Asahi raised his eyebrows and looked at the scruffy, bearded man that walked by with all his possessions on his back. He watched as the other’s eyes followed his own and saw that he understood the risk; if he left his fancy coffee outside it probably wouldn’t be there when he was done.

The other young man looked back at his coffee, inhaled deeply, and lifted the cup to his lips. Asahi’s mouth fell open as watched him up-end the cup and suck its entire contents down. Like any Seattle youth, Asahi had spent some time working in Starbucks, so he knew what the markings on that cup meant. When the empty cup was lowered, Asahi couldn’t believe he just witnessed a very small man chug a quad grande Americano. He was so disturbed and awestruck that he let the customer push past him, dropping the cup in the waste bin by the door.

Asahi turned and looked at Suga, who stood behind the counter and had seen the whole thing. His face was a mixture of disgust and admiration. The customer was at the back of the store in a flash, bumping past Daichi on his way. He disappeared into the fiction section, and the three bookstore employees gathered at the front counter.

“You let him in?” Daichi asked. “He let go of his coffee today?”

“He chugged it,” Suga said.

“Four shots,” Asahi added. “He’s so small.”

Daichi rolled his eyes. “Man, freshmen are ridiculous,” he said.

“He’s going to explode,” Asahi said. “We need to get him out of here before he explodes!”

Before any of them could move to get him out, he was back at the counter with a few books. “I need these right now,” he said. 

Suga blinked at him from behind the counter then began ringing him up. The customer didn’t even seem to notice the other two watching him. Asahi was keeping a safe distance, expecting an actual explosion, but Daichi was leaned in close, watching him.

The antsy customer tapped his finger impatiently on the counter and glanced down at his watch. 

When Suga gave him his total, his fished into his pocket and pulled out some crumpled bills. Suga counted it out and frowned. “You’re two dollars short,” he said. “Well, a dollar eighty-seven.”

“Shit. Shit.” He dug further into his pockets. “I need… I need these books, and I have to be at class in five minutes and…”

Daichi put a hand on the frazzled young man’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “You’ll learn that one late day isn’t the end of the world.” His face was the picture of compassion. The kind bookstore employee was always happy to share wisdom with the college students, even though his own college experience hadn’t been as successful as he led others to believe.

The customer looked up at him and realized what he was implying. “I…” His face turned to rage. “I’m not a freshman!” he exclaimed. “I… I’m a grad student! Oh my god!” He grabbed the bag that Suga had put his books in and headed for the door. Before he walked out, he turned back. “Thank you!” he shouted, and left.

Asahi let out a sigh of relief as if he had been holding his breath that entire time. 

“A grad student?” Daichi asked, looking across the counter to Suga. 

The gray-haired young man shrugged. “If he says so,” he said.

“Is that the first thing he’s actually bought?” Asahi asked.

“It’s the first thing I’ve sold him. Daichi?”

“Yeah, I haven’t sold him anything either. He usually hangs out in the art history section, though. What’d he get from fiction?”

“They were actually art history books,” Suga confirmed.

“Has he been hiding art history books in the fiction section?” Asahi asked.

“I guess so.”

“What an interesting guy,” Suga said, walking over to the waste bin where the customer had dropped his cup. He picked it up and stifled a laugh.

“What is it?” Daichi asked.

Suga held up the cup, and Asahi saw the name that he hadn’t noticed before. 

_aNOYAing_

*

It was quite possibly the last warm day of the year, but that’s what people had been saying since mid-September. The weather had remained up in the seventies longer than it usually did, and the Seattlites were preparing for another warm winter. It was still too warm, but Asahi really wanted to wear his new sweater to work. It was October and he should be wearing sweaters, damn it!

But he knew that if he wore a sweater and biked, he would get way too hot. It was nearly a half hour ride from his Capitol Hill apartment to the bookstore. If he really wanted to wear the sweater, he would have to take the bus, which would also be about half an hour. He wasn’t sure what the balance was on his bus card, either, so he’d have to scrounge up some change just in case… He stood in front of his closet staring at the sweater. It was calling his name.

In the end, he couldn’t find any change or spare dollars for backup bus fare, and decided to just take his bike and save the sweater for another day. He opted for a cream-colored polo instead.

He walked his bike down the two flights of stairs in his apartment building and outside. It was a bit overcast, but he could tell it wasn’t going to rain. Having grown up in the city, he had learned to read the weather, and despite what people said, he didn’t think Seattle was all that rainy. 

His ride to work was uneventful, and he was glad that he didn’t wear the sweater. It was cooler than he was originally anticipating, but when he reached the used bookstore, his brow was damp with sweat and his shoulders felt sticky where his backpack hung. The bell on the door tinkled when he opened it, walking his bike inside.

Sugawara was behind the counter, but it looked like Daichi had already left for the day. It was rare that the three of them were all working at the same time, so Asahi wasn’t surprised. It was a slow time of day, and their manager had scheduled accordingly. After parking his bike in the back room, Asahi approached Sugawara at the front desk.

“Do we have anything that needs to be shelved today?” he asked. Shelving was his favorite thing to do.

Sugawara flipped through a magazine. “Nah, Daichi got yesterday’s load put away. We’ve gotten some in today that need to be dated, though.” Without looking up from his magazine, Suga waved a hand at a box sitting next to him. There weren’t a whole lot of books in there, so Asahi joined him behind the counter and started looking through them.

It was mostly the same things they usually got; a few novels by authors he’d never heard of, some freshman English literature, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Goblet of Fire, and a Webster’s dictionary. He dated the inside cover of all of them with the current date and put them back in the box. It wasn’t worth shelving them just yet.

“Noya hasn’t been in for a few days,” Sugawara said off-handedly.

“Who?” The name wasn’t familiar.

“The crazy coffee guy,” he said.

“Is that his name?”

Sugawara shrugged. “Assuming the name on the cup was a pun, I’m going to say yes. That’s at least what we’ve been calling him.”

Asahi frowned. “I hope Daichi didn’t offend him,” he said. “I mean, thinking he was a freshman… He looked really young, though. Do you really think he’s in grad school?”

The young man with the gray hair shrugged again.

The bell tinkled as a customer walked in, causing Asahi to look over while Sugawara continued to scan the magazine. He came out from behind the counter, asking, “Is there anything I can help you find?”

The customer politely declined the offered assistance and wandered into the SciFi/Fantasy section.

“I’m going to go straighten up a bit,” Asahi said, and walked down a different aisle.

He had spent ten or so minutes rearranging some Young Adult lit when the entrance bell tinkled again. At first he thought it was just the customer leaving, but then he heard Sugawara say, “No drinks allowed.” He poked his head around the end of the aisle to see who it was, and sure enough it was the short young man who usually had coffee. But today he didn’t.

“Jeez, I get it,” he was saying. “See? No coffee today.” Asahi watched him reach into his pants pocket and pull out some more wrinkled dollar bills. “I came to give you what I owed from the other day,” he said. “It was, like, two bucks, right?”

Sugawara looked shocked. “Uh, I think so,” he said. “I honestly don’t remember. I think Daichi took care of it, though, so you really don’t need to worry about it.”

“Well, I am worrying about it!” the one supposedly called Noya said. He seemed unnecessarily aggressive, and Asahi was glad that he wasn’t the one at the register.

But Sugawara had a special charm when it came to dealing with angry people, and it had something to do with his smile. “I guess I can’t refuse, then!” he said, taking the crumpled bills and putting them in the register. “I’m sorry I don’t remember the exact amount, so I can’t really give you change, is that okay?”

“Yeah, just keep the two bucks,” he said. “It’s fine.”

“Well, thanks,” Sugawara said. “Really, it’s nice of you to stop by. Most people would’ve just let it go.”

He seemed calmed by Sugawara’s demeanor and heartfelt thanks. Asahi venture out of the aisle he was hiding in and started rearranging an end display. Noya caught sight of him. “Oh, hey,” he said casually, leaving Sugawara at the counter. 

“Hi,” Asahi replied. “Need anything today?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Nah,” he said. “Just wanted to apologize for the other day. You seemed a bit freaked out.”

Asahi raised his eyebrows. “Yeah…” he said hesitantly. “That much espresso in so short a time can’t be good for you.”

The customer smiled. “Oh, I’m sure it’s not,” he said with a laugh. “It was a crazy day, though. I had been up most of the night working on something, then forgot to do other things, and I was just a mess. I don’t usually get quads, but it was just one of those days.”

The taller one nodded in understanding. He had had days like that, too, and it made him glad that he wasn’t in college anymore.

“Anyway,” he said, slapping Asahi on the shoulder. “Keep up the good work as bookstore bouncer. See you.” He waved to Sugawara on his way out.

“Thanks again,” Sugawara said with an honest smile.

Asahi watched Noya turn right after leaving the bookstore, undoubtedly heading for Starbucks. When he looked back toward his coworker behind the register, he saw that his honest smile had turned into a sly smirk.

“W-what?”

“Oh, nothing,” Sugawara said. “Nothing at all.”

Asahi turned his attention back to the end-aisle display, but he could still feel Sugawara smirking at him. He tried to ignore it, but it was making his shoulders tense.

“He seems like an interesting guy,” Sugawara said off-handedly. “He doesn’t really look it, but he seems pretty honest.”

Asahi shrugged. Thinking back, there had been little surprise that the short young man hadn’t returned after that last encounter, and he sort of never expected to see him again. He had a unique aura about him, with a nontraditional hairstyle, a couple facial piercings, and a wild look in his eye. Though Asahi didn’t have much room to judge; he had seven piercings himself, though they were all in his ears, and his large build and scruffy facial hair tended to intimidate people. Noya hadn’t been the first one to call him a bouncer.

When he turned around, Sugawara still had that stupid smirk on his face. “What is that look for?” Asahi demanded, his face reddening.

Sugawara waved his hand dismissively. “It’s really nothing,” he said. “Can you go sweep?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now with 100% more implied DaiSuga

It was drizzling and Asahi knew he was going to have to bus to work. He was a little bummed to think that summer was finally over and the nine-month-long rainy season was upon them. But that also meant that it was finally sweater weather!

Dressed in a pair of faded jeans and his new pale green sweater with dark green argyle down one side, Asahi grabbed his bag and an umbrella and headed out. There was a dog barking in one of the apartments he passed, and he couldn’t remember if he had noticed a dog there before. Maybe there was a new tenant, which tended to happen pretty frequently.

It wasn’t raining when he stepped outside, but it looked like it had just stopped and could start back up at any time. The bus stop wasn’t too far away but the bus could arrive at any time, so he walked quickly. It was mid-morning and the streets were already pretty busy. As he approached the bus stop, his bus pulled up and he got on.

The bus ride was uneventful. Before he knew it, he was getting off and heading toward the bookstore. By then the rain had started again, but he stayed dry under his umbrella. When the bell tinkled to signal his entrance into the store, it was empty. Asahi turned over the CLOSED sign to signal the store’s opening, and went to set his bag down behind the counter.

“Hello?” he called.

The door to the back room opened and Daichi came out, seeming flustered. “Asahi, what’re you doing here already?” he asked, surprised. He looked down at the sports watch on his wrist, then back up at Asahi. “Oh, wow, it got late fast.”

Asahi looked at his own watch. “It’s only ten,” he said.

“Yeah, I thought it was earlier… We were just going through some things from yesterday.”

“’We’?” Asahi raised an eyebrow.

Suga came out of the back room and gave a small wave. “I didn’t get everything done last night, so I came in early today,” he said with a smile.

“Oh.”

“Everything should be in order, though,” he assured. “I’ll be back in this afternoon.” He patted Asahi on the shoulder as he passed and headed for the door. Before leaving, he turned and added, “Oh, and Noya came by last night. He was just looking at things, though.”

“Okay?”

“Bye, Asahi. Daichi.” He smiled and left.

Asahi turned to Daichi, who busied himself tidying a nearby shelf. “Anything for me to do this morning?” he asked.

“Nope,” Daichi answered, almost too quickly. “We got everything. You can just make sure things are in order and stuff.”

Asahi nodded and wandered off to one of the other sections.

The rest of the morning was pretty slow. People wandered in every now and then to get out of the drizzle. Daichi had forgotten to put the mats out before they opened, so the floor got wet. As he worked, Asahi couldn’t help but wondering if Noya was going to stop by, but Suga said he had just been there last night, and now that he thought about it, he usually only came later in the afternoon. He didn’t strike Asahi as a morning person, but then again, neither did Daichi, and he was up at six working out and running errands before work every day.

It was nearly one o’clock when Asahi took a break for lunch. The rain had once again stopped for the time being, so Asahi didn’t bother to grab his umbrella. He left Daichi alone in the store with a couple browsing customers who probably wouldn’t buy anything.

There were plenty of places to eat on the Ave, but he was really craving a gyro. There were more gyro places than he cared to count, but his favorite one was a couple blocks north. He tucked his hands in his pockets and headed that way.

The sidewalks were filled with people that seemed to part around him and he tried to shrink into himself, to make himself smaller. He crossed the street and made it to his favorite gyro shop, one with an outside order window. They also made really great falafel, he remembered, and got a side order along with his gyro. The wait for his food was pretty short, but it was long enough that the rain started back up. He stood under the awning and looked up at the sky.

With a sigh, Asahi clutched the plastic bag containing his hot lunch and made his way out into the rain.

He crossed back over to the other side of the street when he had a WALK light a block up from the road he needed. He walked quickly with his head down, dodging umbrellas in his periphery. He got to the corner and turned left toward the bookstore. He was in the soggy home stretch when—

“Hey! Bookstore bodyguard!”

He stopped and looked up. Noya was walking toward him, smiling and dry under an umbrella.

He kept walking and said, “I almost didn’t recognize you outside of the bookstore and…wet.” He held his umbrella up and covered Asahi with it. “Heading to work?” he asked.

“I’m on my lunch, actually,” Asahi said.

The one holding the umbrella seemed to just notice the bag in Asahi’s hand and leaned over, smelling it. “Oh, man, that smells awesome! What is it?” He looked up at Asahi, genuine curiosity in his almond eyes.

“A gyro and some falafel. From Aladdin’s up the street.” His gaze was so strong that Asahi had to look away.

“That’s so west-coast!” He smiled. “Do you have long for lunch? Want to grab some coffee?” He nodded toward the Starbucks on the opposite corner of the intersection.

Asahi looked down at his watch; his lunch was half over. He had intended to eat in the back room of the bookstore, but he could always change his plans. He shrugged. “I guess I’ve got time,” he said.

“Awesome! Let’s go before the light changes!”

They crossed the streets together, Noya holding the umbrella the whole way and hitting Asahi in the head with it a couple times. He shook off the water when they made it to the door. Asahi opened the door and held it for him.

“Thanks!”

The line inside wasn’t too long, so they were at the counter before Asahi knew what he wanted. He let Noya go first.

“Hey, Noya!” the barista at the register said. He was tall with narrow, sneaky eyes and short dark hair. The sleeves of his button-down shirt were rolled up to reveal a full-color, full-sleeve tattoo on his left arm. The chalkboard nametag he wore read “RYUU” in thin, messy script. “Long time no see.” He snickered.

“Yeah, man, it’s been ages!” They shook hands across the counter and Noya wiped away a fake tear.

“What’ll you have today?”

“I need to cash in my birthday drink,” Noya said. “What’s something stupidly expensive?”

Asahi blinked and interrupted. “It’s your birthday?” he asked.

Noya turned as if he had almost forgotten that Asahi was there. “Well, it was last week. But the free drink is good for, what, a week?” Noya looked at the barista.

“Yeah,” he said. “Today’s your last day to use it.”

“Cool, so what’s a stupidly expensive drink?”

Ryuu shrugged. “Just get something with a ton of espresso.”

Noya considered this. “I don’t really need a lot of espresso today, though…”

“How about a smoothie?”

He held in a laugh. “Seriously?” he asked. “Do I seem like a smoothie guy to you?” He turned to Asahi and asked again, “Do I seem like a smoothie guy to you?”

Asahi didn’t know how to answer. He was caught off guard by the question, and he hardly knew the guy, and the menu was so overwhelming. It had changed a lot since he had worked there; he used to get tea, but they had changed their tea supplier at some point and he wasn’t sure which one he wanted.

Noya had turned back at the barista. “I guess extra espresso doesn’t hurt,” he said. “So, uh… Quad venti black and white mocha with, hmm… Vanilla. And make it breve.”

Ryuu wrote it all down and handed the cup off to the bar barista. He then turned to the register and rang it in.

“And I’ll get whatever he’s having, too,” he said, pointing to Asahi.

“You don’t have to do that!” Asahi protested, waving his hands.

“My treat,” Noya insisted. “I’ll hold up this line forever if you don’t order.”

Asahi scanned their tea selection, and then said, “Hot chocolate.”

“Hot chocolate?” Noya asked.

“What size?” Ryuu asked.

“Just, uh… Just a tall.”

“Go big, buddy! Make it a venti!” Noya said.

Ryuu grabbed a venti cup.

“N-no, a tall’s fine!”

Ryuu exchanged it for a tall cup.

“Don’t hold back on my account,” Noya said, causing Ryuu to revisit the venti cup.

“I won’t have time to finish it before I have to get back to work,” Asahi said. “I don’t want to waste it.”

“Riiight,” Noya said, drawing out the vowel. “No drinks allowed.” He smiled. “Fine, a tall’s fine.”

Asahi sighed in relief.

Ryuu picked up the tall cup again and wrote it down. “What’s your friend’s name?” he asked.

Noya looked at Asahi and asked plainly, “What’s your name?”

“Asahi,” he said. “Asahi Azumane.”

“First name’s all I need, buddy,” Ryuu said, writing something longer than “Asahi” on the cup and passing it off as well.

Noya smiled. “I’m Yuu Nishinoya, by the way,” he said, holding his phone up to the scanner. “Everyone calls me Noya, though.” He stuck his phone back in his pocket and offered Asahi his hand, which Asahi hesitantly shook. “And this is my roommate, Ryuunosuke Tanaka. Try fitting all that on a name tag, though.”

The barista shot Noya a glare and shooed them down to the end of the bar so that he could continue doing his job.

When their drinks were done, the barista at the espresso machine set them on the counter and called out, “Birthday Boy” and “Yuu’s Tall Friend”.

Noya was so excited about being referred to as “birthday boy” that he nearly spilled his extravagant drink. Asahi, on the other hand, averted his eyes and took his hot chocolate, mumbling a small “Thanks” to the barista, who had already moved on to another drink.

There were some tall tables lined up against one of the large windowed walls. Asahi followed Noya as he picked out the cleanest one and climbed into one of the chairs. The taller one placed his gyro bag on the table, then sat down across from Noya. He opened the bag and took out the warm Styrofoam box and was suddenly beginning to fear how this was going to taste with his newly-acquired hot chocolate.

Asahi bit into the gyro first, his eyes wandering to the sidewalk outside the window. It looked like the rain had slowed down again, but everyone was still huddled under umbrellas or into their raincoats. He couldn’t quite see the bookstore up the road, but he knew it well enough to imagine what it looked like just then. He could even imagine Daichi sitting behind the counter looking at the clock, wondering where Asahi had gotten to. Asahi was never late for work, and even if the lines were long where he was eating, he would go hungry before being late. He made a mental apology to his friend and coworker.

When he looked back at his coffee companion, he found that Noya was watching him watching outside. Noya smiled knowingly. “You’re going to be late, aren’t you?” he asked.

Asahi took the last bite of gyro and wiped his mouth on a napkin as he chewed. When he was finished he said, “It’s fine.” He gave Noya a small smile. “It’s not often I get to enjoy my lunch. Like this.”

This made Noya’s smile broaden. “I’m glad I could help!” he said. “I just don’t want you to get in trouble or anything.”

He started into his falafel balls. Picking one up in a napkin, he offered it across the table. “Do you want one?”

Noya took it gratefully and tossed the whole thing into his mouth. “Thanks!” he said, mid-chew. 

Asahi watched his reaction as he first got over the heat of the deep-fried ball, then the thoughtfulness he showed as he chewed. It looked like Noya was considering every spice the falafel offered, how they tasted and how they mixed together. Finally, he swallowed. Asahi ate another one as he watched. “Well?” he asked when they were both done.

“It’s interesting,” he admitted. “It’s a whole different kind of spice from what I’m used to.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve spent the last five years near New Orleans,” he said. It seemed like he was going to say more, but then he took a sip of his coffee and gagged. “Oh my god,” he said, his tongue hanging out. “That is the worst combination I’ve ever experienced!”

Asahi couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit.

He hopped down off the tall stool. “I’m gonna get some water,” he said. “I can grab you one, too, unless you like hot chocolate with your falafel.” He walked back toward the counter, shaking his head and muttering. 

Asahi watched him go, popping the last falafel ball into his mouth. While he was waiting for the waters, Noya looked back over his shoulder and smiled at Asahi. He felt his heart skip a beat and couldn’t help but smile, too. Somewhere in his mind he knew what this feeling was, but he still wasn’t sure. He looked down at the cup on the table, the one that said “Yuu’s Tall Friend”. It was warm when he cupped his hands around it, warm like he imagined Noya to be. What was he even thinking? He shook his head and let go of his hot chocolate. 

“You feeling okay, Asahi?” Noya asked. He had returned with the ice waters and put them on the table with a couple of straws, climbing up onto his chair.

Even the way Noya said his name was…different. He stuck the straw into his cup and took a sip. “Yeah, I’m good,” he said. He drank half his water without saying anything else. Once the taste of his lunch was washed down, he figured it was time to try the hot chocolate. It had cooled down to an acceptable temperature and went down easy. The warmth it filled him with would be good to fight against the damp chill outside.

“You should probably be getting back to work, huh?” Noya said.

Asahi looked at his watch. It was nearly two. “Yeah. Thanks for the drink,” he said.

Noya smiled at him, causing him to inspect the lid of his cup. “Thanks for the company,” Noya said. “I can walk you back, since you don’t have an umbrella or anything.”

“Thanks,” Asahi said.

“Seriously, who goes anywhere in this city without any umbrella?”

Asahi’s face reddened. “I left it at the store,” he said. “It wasn’t raining when I left.”

Noya grabbed his own empty water cup off the table. “Are you done with your water?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

He took Asahi’s cup, too, and tossed them in the trash. He returned to the table to grab his coffee. “Let’s get you back to work,” he said.

With his hot chocolate in hand, Asahi followed Noya out the door. His face was warm despite the light rain and damp breeze. Asahi offered to carry the umbrella, but Noya refused. After that, they walked the short distance in silence.

When the stopped under the bookstore’s awning, Noya lowered the umbrella and smiled up at Asahi. “You’d better finish that before going inside,” he said, eying the cup in Asahi’s hand. “I hear they don’t allow drinks in there.”

“That sounds like a rule they make up only for certain customers.” Asahi smiled back at him, and before Noya had a chance to respond, he thanked him again and went inside.

Daichi was helping a customer in the travel section when Asahi walked in. After getting what the customer needed, he turned to Asahi. “Where the hell have you been?” he hissed. He saw the cup in Asahi’s hand. “You seriously just showed up late with Starbucks.” His eyes stared intensely at Asahi, waiting for an explanation.

“Sorry,” Asahi said, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. “I was almost back and I ran into Noya and he invited me for coffee and I couldn’t refuse.”

“Asahi, you don’t even like coffee,” Daichi said. “I know what this is about.” He walked past Asahi to get back to the counter where another customer was waiting.

Asahi followed him. “What do you mean?”

Daichi’s entire demeanor had changed when he was with the customer. Asahi waited patiently for the transaction to be completed. Once it was done and the customer was gone, Daichi turned to him. “Suga was right,” he said. “You like him, don’t you?”

“What?” Asahi asked. His blush betrayed any hope he had of denying the accusation.

“Suga’s always right about these things,” he said. “You like the wild coffee kid.”

Despite his faces betrayal, Asahi said, “No! He just caught me off guard and I couldn’t say no, really!”

Daichi smirked. “Yeah, sure,” he said. “And hey, next time you leave, make sure you take your phone with you, okay?” He pulled Asahi’s phone out from under the counter and handed it to him. “I tried calling when you were late, but a lot of good that does when you leave your phone here.”

Asahi nodded and dropped the phone into his pocket. “Yeah, sorry,” he said.

Daichi patted him on the shoulder. “And no more extended lunches.”


	3. Chapter 3

Asahi stood outside the bookstore a few days later. He was supposed to be organizing the discount books on the shelves that someone had gone through and completely messed up, but he found himself standing there staring down the street at Starbucks. It was overcast, but not rainy, which was good for the books. Daichi had even propped the front door open, despite the chill. He said the fresh air was good for them—it also seemed like he hadn’t gotten much sleep and the cool air kept him from falling asleep at the register.

“Oy, big guy.” The voice came from behind him and he jumped. His mind had been somewhere else completely and he hadn’t heard anyone approaching. When he turned he found himself looking at the barista from the other day, but without the friendly customer service face he had been wearing at work. He glared up at Asahi with those beady eyes, hands shoved in his pockets, shoulders hunched. “Austin, right?” he asked, poking Asahi in the chest.

He took a step back. “A-asahi,” he corrected.

The barista waved off the correction and returned his hand to his pocket. “Sure,” he said. “Whatever. Look. I don’t know what your intentions are, buddy, but you better be fucking careful, you hear me?”

Despite the nice ironed shirt he was wearing, probably for work, Asahi found this guy terrifying. He gulped and nodded.

“Yuu’s a really great guy who’s been through a lot of shit. I don’t need some punk like you pulling him around.” He got really close to Asahi, looking up at him.

“I, um…”

“If you do anything, _anything_ , to hurt him, I will come after you. And you will be so fucking sorry.”

“Okay,” Asahi said, backing into one of the rolling carts of books. “Okay, I get it.”

“Good.” He patted Asahi firmly on both shoulders. “He wanted me to let you know that he’s sick so he won’t be around for a bit.”

“Oh,” Asahi said. He tried to hide the disappointment in the voice but wasn’t sure he was successful.

There was a pause and the barista gave Asahi one last glare before say, “I’ve got to get to work,” and leaving.

As he watched him walk away, Asahi clutched the sweater fabric covering his chest in an attempt to calm his heart. He remained leaning on the cart for another minute before he was able to move again. With the books still disheveled, he went back inside.

Daichi stood behind the counter, resting his head on an open book.

“Hey, Daichi?” Asahi ventured. His voice was still shaky from the confrontation.

His coworker looked up, straining with the weight of the bags under his eyes.

The sweatered clerk walked around and joined Daichi behind the counter, where he leaned against it and crossed his arms. He chewed his lip as he thought and Daichi watched him wearily. As soon as he went to put his head back down, Asahi opened his mouth. “I think you’re right,” he said.

Daichi raised his eyebrows and a small smile tugged at his lips. “Oh?” he asked. “About what?”

“About…” Asahi covered his face with his hands. “About Noya…”

“Oh…?”

“But I… I don’t know…” He thought for another moment, sliding his hands down his unshaven face. “He… His friend, the barista, he just… _threatened_ me.”

“Threatened you?” Daichi asked, sitting up. “How so?”

“He told me he’s been through some things, and if I hurt him, he’ll come after me or something…”

Daichi threw an arm around Asahi’s shoulders and he tensed. “Don’t worry about that,” he said, giving Asahi a smile. “You couldn’t hurt anyone if you wanted to. Besides, if you do somehow screw up, I’ll protect you.”

Asahi knew Daichi meant it, but it was hard to believe him when he could barely keep his head up. “Thanks, I guess,” he said. “Daichi, are you going to be okay? You can go home and rest if you want.”

“Nah, I’m good.” He laid his head down on the counter and looked up at Asahi. “I can just rest right here.”

He pat his tired coworker gently on the back and left him there to rest. There were still books that needed to be rearranged outside, so he went to take care of that. He was thankful that there didn’t need to be much of an order to them, so he could just mindlessly straighten while he thought.

There was still a large part of him that wasn’t sure he wanted to pursue anything with Noya or even if there was something there to pursue. He honestly had fun having lunch with him the other day, but his mind was having trouble figuring out why Noya would have even invited him along in the first place. He was just a clerk in a bookstore that the grad student had only actually given patronage to once. They had had a couple of interactions. Asahi hardly knew the guy, but there was something about him that was intriguing. He began to wonder if he was feeling some sort of romantic attraction or just curiosity about Yuu Nishinoya as a person.

Thinking more about it, Asahi was surprised that he _wasn’t_ surprised by these feelings. In his twenty-four years of life, he never once stopped to consider what sort of person he liked. He just liked people. He had dated a couple girls when he was in school, but nothing serious. Guys had always been an option, he supposed, but nothing he had previously pursued. 

What if Noya didn’t like men? That was a whole other complication that he hadn’t even thought about. Really, his only friends at the moment were Daichi and Suga, and they both liked men at least to some extent; Asahi had never really cared how they identified and it never came up in conversation at the bookstore, where 95% of their interactions took place anymore. Asahi had gone to college with Daichi, who had a few casual girlfriends and some hook-ups he thought Asahi didn’t know about and then a serious one for a couple years until she graduated and moved, not wanting to be tied down yet.

When he went back inside after tidying up the books, Daichi was fully asleep at the counter, still standing up. His breathing was light and a small snore escaped every now and then. Asahi smiled and decided to leave him be.

At the back of the store, the new arrivals were beginning to pile up. He began to sift through them with a sigh. He was suddenly tired and so very ready for his shift to end. His back was to the door, but he heard someone walk in. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, since he knew Noya was home sick, but he turned around hopefully. It was just another average customer. He smiled at them and returned to the new arrivals.

Daichi had to wake up to check the customer out, and once they left, Asahi returned to his side. “Really, Daichi,” he said. “Go home. Suga will be here in less than an hour and I’ll be fine on my own. It’s slow today.”

“Suga?” Daichi said. That seemed to be all he caught out of what Asahi said. He looked at the sports watch on his wrist. “Yeah, Suga closes tonight.” He smiled warmly to himself, still dazed from his nap on the counter.

“At least go sit down in the back or something,” Asahi said. “You’re lucky you didn’t fall over.”

He stifled a yawn and smiled sleepily, patting Asahi on the shoulder. “You’re a good friend,” he said, and stumbled around the counter and toward the back room.

The store was quiet for quite some time. Asahi kept looking at the clock as the second slowly ticked on. He found himself wondering what kind of sick Noya was, if it was a cold or a stomach bug or what. Hopefully it wasn’t going to interfere with his classes. Asahi didn’t even know what he was studying, but since it was grad school, it must be pretty serious and he guessed that a few days off could be seriously detrimental. A chill went through him just thinking about it; he liked learning well enough, but school hadn’t really been his thing. Reading was more fun when you got to pick what you read instead of being told. He also wasn’t a very good literary analyst, so he still didn’t really know how he managed to get his degree. Books were better when you could just mindlessly enjoy them, he thought. School had ruined a lot of good books for him, and for that he had not yet forgiven it.

Suga got there ten minutes early to find Asahi staring into space behind the front counter. He had to call his name a couple times to get his attention.

“Oh, Suga, hey,” Asahi said. His voice cracked from the dryness in his throat. He cleared it.

“Are you feeling okay?” Suga asked. He had that concerned expression on his face. “You seem spacey.”

“Just thinking,” he said, then added, “Daichi’s been sleeping in the back for the last half hour.”

Suga smiled innocently.

“How late did you keep him up last night?” Asahi asked, narrowing his eyes at his gray-haired coworker.

“Not that late,” Suga said. He looked just fine, as bright and perky as he usually was. “He left around two.”

“Suga, you know the man is up before six every day,” Asahi said with an exasperated sigh.

“That’s his choice.” Suga smiled and went to wake Daichi.

Asahi was once again alone in the shop. His eyes had followed Suga to the back room and they lingered on the door after it closed. He must have zoned out again, because there was suddenly a customer in front of him that he hadn’t even seen walk in.

“Hey!” the customer said. “Are you going to ring me up or what?”

“S-sorry,” Asahi muttered, not able to meet the customer’s intense glare.

The customer left and Asahi went to find a stool; he was tired of standing and thought he deserved a break.

It was nearly half-past four by the time Daichi and Suga came out from the back room. Suga had been on the clock since four, but Asahi doubted he was doing any work. Daichi was headed home and they snuck a quick kiss before he left, thinking their coworker wasn’t paying attention. Suga walked over to the counter where Asahi was sitting and leaned over, smiling slyly at him.

“So,” Suga said, drawing out to vowel. “You and coffee boy, huh?”

Asahi sighed. He wasn’t surprised Daichi had said something. “I mean, I don’t know…” he said. “His friend kind of threatened me, so I’m not really sure it’s worth it.”

“Not worth it?” Suga said, frowning. “Love’s always worth it!”

Asahi’s face reddened. “I never said anything about love!” he protested. “I don’t even know if I, you know, like him or whatever. He’s just… interesting. I mean, you’ve met him. He just seems like an interesting guy.”

“’Interesting’…” Suga thought about Asahi’s choice of words for a moment. “So you don’t want to sleep with him or anything?”

“S-suga!”

“Sorry!” he laughed nervously. “I’m just trying to help.”

“But… No, no I don’t think so…” Asahi thought about it. He mostly just wanted to get to know him and to hang out with him. “I mean, he’s cute I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I mean he is! Yeah, he’s cute. But it’s not just that.” Suga was smiling. “I don’t know…”

“You should ask him out,” Suga said. “Just ask him, next time he’s in here. I mean, you sort of already had a date with him so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.”

Asahi could feel his hands beginning to tremble, just thinking about possibly asking Noya out and about the fact that, Suga was right, they sort of already had a date. Sort of. “He’s sick,” Asahi said suddenly.

“Sick?”

“His friend told me, after he threatened me. He said Noya told him to tell me.”

Suga reached across the counter and slapped Asahi’s shoulder. “That means something!” he said. “That means something _really good._ ”

“Does it?” Asahi asked, not convinced.

“Yeah!” Suga smiled brightly. “You don’t just tell your friend to tell a stranger that you’re sick,” he said. “He wanted you to know so that you don’t think he’s avoiding you or something.”

“Should I, like… Send him a card or something?”

“Like a Get Well Soon card?” Suga asked.

“I don’t know, I guess?”

The gray-haired clerk laughed. “I mean, if you want to. You don’t want to come on _too_ strong, though.”

“I mean, he had his friend go out of his way to tell me he was sick, so I should at least make sure he knows his friend did it, right?”

Suga thought about it. “Yeah, I guess that would be nice. How are you going to get it to him, though?”

Asahi froze. If he wanted to get a card to Noya, he’d have to give it to his barista friend. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to confront him.

His face must have led Suga to realize what he was thinking. “I could drop it off with his friend if you’d like,” he offered. “You’ll have to point out which one he is, though.”

Asahi nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I can do that.”

The bookstore had a small card rack that Suga walked over to. He spun it around a couple times while Asahi watched.

“Are any of those…appropriate?” he asked.

“I mean, they’re mostly blank,” Suga said. “So you can make them into any kind of card you want!”

Asahi walked over and joined him. Most of the cards they had were the blank cardstock ones with a random photo attached to the front. He picked up one showing a kitten wearing a sweater. “What about this one?” he asked, showing it to Suga.

“Too friendly,” Suga said. 

“This one?” It was an old couple sitting on a bench.

Suga just gave him a look and he put it down.

Asahi looked through a few more and found one with a bunch of balloons floating off into the sky.

“That’s kind of depressing,” Suga said. “But also kind of fitting somehow…” He took the card from Asahi and looked at it closer. “No, I like this one,” he said. “This one is good.”

Asahi nodded. “Ring me up, then?” he asked.

Suga walked around to the other side of the counter and rang the card into the cash register. Asahi paid for it and grabbed a pen out of the cup sitting there. He thought for a really long time about what he wanted to write on it. In the end, he settled on simply:

“Thanks again for the hot chocolate. Get well soon! –Asahi Azumane”

Suga watched him as he wrote it out, then said, “Signing your whole name? How many Asahis do you think he knows?”

“I don’t know, it just sort of feels right. Like just ‘Asahi’ would have been too informal…”

“Oh, and you should put ‘PS- Next one’s on me’ with a winky face!”

Asahi considered it, then wrote it down without the face.

“Winky face!” Suga encouraged.

“No!”

Suga puffed up his cheeks and pouted. “Fine. Let’s go.”

“Right now?” Asahi asked.

“Yeah. No one’s here and it’ll only take a bit,” he said. He pulled a sign out from under the counter to hang on the door. “Come on.”

After Suga hung the _Be Back Soon!_ sign, they left the store and Asahi locked up. 

When they got to the crosswalk, Asahi hesitated. “I’ll just wait here,” he said. “He’s the one with the tattoos on his arm. I think his name started with an R?”

Suga grabbed him by the arm when the light changed and dragged him over to the Starbucks. “You’re coming a little bit closer,” Suga said. “Just stand outside. Point him out to me, just in case.”

They stopped in front of the Starbucks door and Asahi peered discreetly inside. “He’s at the espresso machine,” he said.

Suga nodded and, holding the card in his hand, went inside. Asahi watched through the window as he waited at the end of the bar to get the barista’s attention. It looked like he had a couple drinks he was making but finally looked up. He looked a lot friendlier when he was working. They exchanged some words and he looked out the window. Before their eyes had a change to meet, Asahi turned around and hoped he didn’t recognize him, though his bunned hair gave him away. He stared at the sidewalk until Suga came out.

“He said he’d pass it along to Noya,” Suga said. “They’re roommates, by the way.”

“I think I vaguely remember that coming up,” Asahi said, his voice quiet.

They began to walk back to the bookstore. “And his name’s Ryuu. He doesn’t seem too bad.”

“I guess.”

When they got back, Asahi let them in and excused himself to the back room. He needed a minute to breathe and think about what he’d just done, because there was no taking it back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there was no Noya in this chapter? He'll be back, though, don't worry! Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

It was another three days before Noya showed up again. It was lightly misting and getting colder. He was wearing a tan coat and burgundy scarf, carrying an umbrella but not currently using it. Steam rose from the hole in the lid of his coffee as he stood on the sidewalk outside the bookstore. Asahi had been sweeping the aisles when Suga found him to tell him he had a visitor.

When Asahi went out to the front, he found himself thankful that he was wearing his good pants. They were tight-fitting jeans that were slightly faded, and went well with the red and gray flannel he had picked out. He stepped outside onto the sidewalk and was greeted by Noya’s smile.

His nose looked dry as if he’d been blowing it a lot, and when he spoke his voice sounded stuffy. “Hey,” he said. “Thanks for the card. It really lifted my spirits when I was down.” A puzzled expression crossed his face. “I’m not sure what the picture was supposed to mean, but it gave me something to think about besides my cold.”

Asahi smiled, relieved. The past three days had been torture as his brain made up possible scenarios for Noya’s reaction to the card. There were points when part of him hoped Ryuu didn’t actually give it to him, but in the end he was glad that he did. “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he said.

“Yeah, I mean, it was just a cold. I’m still getting used to the weather out here, so it hit me harder than they usually do.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Ryuu wanted me to let you know that you owe him. He’s not a messenger, you know.”

“Oh! I didn’t mean… I’m sorry. Tell him I’m sorry!” The last thing he wanted was to be on that guy’s bad side.

Noya laughed, which turned briefly into a cough. He covered his mouth with his elbow and splashed a bit of coffee out of its cup and onto the sidewalk. “Sorry,” he said when finished. “I’m not contagious, though!” He smiled, as if that proved his point. “Uh, I should let you get back to work, though,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “I just wanted to thank you for the card.”

“Yeah,” was all Asahi could manage to reply. 

“See you, then.”

Noya turned to go, heading toward campus, but Asahi stopped him. “I’m off at three,” he said. “If you’re not busy, could I get you that coffee I owe you?”

Noya turned and held up his cup, which was still pretty full.

“Oh, right,” he said. He hadn’t thought of that. Why hadn’t he thought of that? 

“But I suppose this will be gone by then and I’ll need more,” Noya said, taking a long gulp. He lowered the cup and smiled. “I’ll see you at three,” he said.

Asahi smiled back and watched as he turned and walked off. When he was gone, Asahi rushed back into the bookstore and found Suga standing behind the counter with that knowing smirk on his face. He wiggled his eyebrows at Asahi. “Don’t,” Asahi whined, and made his way to the back of the store.

The rest of the day dragged on, but Asahi entertained himself by making a game out of avoiding Suga, who seemed to appear at the end of every aisle he slid down. He straightened up some books in the travel section. There were so many places he wanted to go. He went to Portland once, and that was pretty fun. They had an enormous bookstore there that he could have spent weeks in, if he were being honest. He was always honest about books.

He scanned the spines and his eyes stopped on a New Orleans guidebook. Wasn’t that where Noya was from? At that moment, he couldn’t remember the exact context of the conversation, but he knew that New Orleans had come up at some point. He pulled the book out and sat down on the step stool that he had been using to reach the top shelves—the fact that Asahi needed a stool to reach anything really said something about how tall these shelves were.

He was reading a section on the rich voodoo culture the city had to offer when Suga finally managed to catch him.

“New Orleans, huh?” he said, standing behind Asahi. “Planning a trip?” His words were overly enunciated and Asahi felt a slight stab in his gut with the last consonant.

“No,” he said. “Just curious.” He could feel the burn rising in his face as he slipped the book back onto the shelf. “I don’t travel much,” he said. “What about you? Do you travel?”

The gray-haired young man looked thoughtful. “I mean, I like traveling,” he said. “And I could use a vacation, honestly.” Now that he thought about it, Asahi couldn’t recall a time that Suga had been away from work longer than the average two or three days off every week. Asahi watched as his coworker’s eyes scanned the destinations, then looked away suddenly. “Nah,” he said. “Traveling isn’t really my thing now-a-days.” He smiled at Asahi, who was standing. 

Asahi returned the smile, thought it was a slightly confused one, and headed toward the front counter. Suga followed close behind as though he didn’t want to let him get away.

“So,” Suga said, leaning on the counter next to Asahi. “How’s Noya feeling? He looked like he was feeling better.”

“He’s good,” Asahi said, putting some pens away and straightening up the counter however he could to keep himself busy. “He’s fine.”

“That’s good,” Suga said. “Did he like the card?”

Asahi blushed a little and nodded.

“And the date?”

“D-date?” Asahi sputtered. “What date? There’s no date!”

“The next one,” Suga reminded him. “On you. When’s the ‘next one’?”

Asahi pressed his lips together and looked down at his hands planted firmly on the counter. “He’s meeting me back here when I get off,” he said, his voice quiet.

Suga slapped him on the back, probably harder than he needed to. “You’re not wasting any time!”

“Suga…” It was hardly more than an exasperated moan. “It’s just coffee. It doesn’t mean anything. I mean, I don’t think it means anything. To him, anyway.”

“But it means something to you.”

When Asahi looked up, his friend had a soft, genuine smile on his face. He could be a little much at times, in a way that reminded Asahi of his mother. But he really was a good guy. And Asahi wasn’t sure if he had ever really appreciated just how _pretty_ Suga was. Suga wasn’t his type, though. Was Noya?

“Hey,” Suga said, and nodded toward the door.

Asahi looked outside to see Noya standing on the sidewalk. His back was turned to the store as he looked out across the street. Asahi glanced up at the clock.

“Go,” Suga said, despite the fact that Asahi still had ten minutes left of his shift. “I’ll cover for you.”

Asahi smiled and patted Suga on the shoulder. “Thanks,” he said, and went to grab his jacket from the back.

Nishinoya seemed surprised when Asahi came out of the bookstore. “I thought you weren’t off until three,” he said, though his smile said he was glad he was early.

“Suga let me leave a few minutes early,” Asahi said.

Noya threw his unopened umbrella over his shoulder. “How nice of him,” he said with a smile. “He’s the pretty one, right?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Asahi said.

“As opposed to the handsome one.”

“Uh.”

“The one with the short dark hair.”

“Daichi?” Asahi supposed one could call him handsome.

They began to walk toward the Starbucks and Noya laughed. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s probably not appropriate to talk about your coworkers like that.” He smiled.

“Ah, no, it’s fine,” Asahi said. “I guess I just never thought about them like that.”

“Oh.” Noya suddenly sounded very unsure of himself and walked a little bit faster. “I didn’t mean to imply anything.” He laughed nervously. “It’s just…something I think about, I guess.”

Asahi could almost feel Noya closing himself off and knew he needed to do something quick. “I mean, I do, too,” he said. “Just not with them.”

“Right, ‘cause they’re guys…”

“N-no,” Asahi said, backtracking as they crossed the busy street. “Not because of that! Daichi’s, like, my best friend. We were roommates in college. And Suga?” He shook his head, thought for a moment, then added, “They’re kind of a thing, anyway.”

They entered the Starbucks and Noya raised his eyebrows. “Oh, really?” he asked. “Hmm, I didn’t really think the handsome one was gay, honestly…” He looked thoughtful as they approached the counter.

“He’s not!” Asahi sounded more defensive than he meant to. Quieter, he said, “I mean, he’s bi.” A look of horror suddenly crossed Asahi’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Noya asked.

“Oh my god, I’m the worst…” He covered his face with his hands. “You can’t tell anyone. You can’t let anyone know. Please forget I said anything. He…”

Noya waved it away. “It’s okay,” he said. “Who am I gonna tell? I get it,” he said.

“It’s just… No one really knows. He’s still kind of…weird about it, I don’t know. I shouldn’t have said anything…” He was looking down at the floor in shame.

“I’ll just forget it, then,” Noya said.

They didn’t say anything until they ordered their drinks. Noya pulled up the Starbucks app on his phone, but Asahi reminded him that this one was on him, and paid with a crumpled ten dollar bill that he pulled out of his old leather wallet. They waited at the end of the bar for their drinks, silent.

The store was pretty crowded thanks to its close proximity to the campus, but the high-top table they had sat at the last time was miraculously open. Noya sat his cup down and hopped onto the high stool.

Asahi sat, as well, and looked out the window.

“So, uh,” Noya started, startling Asahi. “What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah,” Noya said, staring at him with those soft almond eyes. “Are you gay?”

The question was so direct that Asahi nearly choked on his tea. He set the cup down on the table and inhaled slowly. “I don’t know,” he said. Noya’s eyebrows arched in response. Asahi looked back out the window with an ironic smile on his face. “Twenty-four years old and I don’t even know.” Part of him was expecting Noya to laugh at him, so he braced himself for it, eyes glued to the window. He was surprised when Noya’s hand touched his.

“It’s okay not to know,” Noya said. His hand was warm from his coffee, and Asahi hadn’t noticed how small it was, especially compare to his own. “A lot of people don’t know what they want. Some people ignore what they want, or think they know what they want but then find out that what they really want is something they didn’t even know they could want. Or something like that.”

Asahi looked from their hands up into Noya’s eyes, and he saw a slight blush on his cheeks.

He laughed, but it was a nice laugh, and he wasn’t laughing at Asahi. “You’re a really good guy,” he said.

Asahi pulled his hand away and grabbed his cup, but didn’t pick it up. “You don’t even know me,” he said, inspecting the lid and everything else that wasn’t Noya.

“I can just tell,” Noya said, picking up his own cup.

Asahi looked back out the window, hoping that the hair that had escaped his bun might hide his reddening face. “You seem like a good guy, too, Noya,” he said.

“Good enough to maybe take you to dinner sometime?”

His forwardness would never stop catching Asahi off guard. His eyes snapped to Noya’s, surprise written all over his face in the arch of his eyebrows and the slackness of his jaw. “I, uh… Y…yeah,” Asahi said, once he pulled himself together somewhat. “Yeah, sure.” 

Noya beamed at him and took a sip of his coffee, then held out his hand. “Awesome! Now let me see your phone so I can give you my number.”

Asahi obliged and reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. He unlocked it and pulled up the keypad, then handed it to Noya. Having seen Noya use his Starbucks app on his iPhone, Asahi wasn’t sure if he would know how to navigate the Android OS. Noya tapped in the number and handed it back to Asahi to make it an official contact. When he looked at it, he had no idea where the area code was from, but decided to look it up later. He saved the contact as Noya’s full name, as he was prone to doing with everyone.

“Now text me so I have your number,” Noya said, and Asahi obliged. He sent a generic smiley emoticon, and watched as Noya received it and saved the contact in his own phone. “Awesome!” Noya said, and put his phone back in his pocket.

Asahi took another sip of his tea only to realize that he hadn’t taken the bags out and it had over-steeped. He frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing,” Asahi said. “So, uh…” He scrambled for something to say while Noya patiently waited to see what he came up with. “How are classes? You didn’t get too behind, did you?”

“Nah, I’m fine,” he said, waving his hand. “I only have two actual classes right now, and one of them only meets once a week, so I didn’t actually miss anything.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah, when I wasn’t sleeping I was actually getting ahead on some reading, which feels a little strange.”

“Oh?”

Noya laughed and shrugged. “Yeah, I was always behind in undergrad,” he said. “Not just behind, but downright neglectful of readings, honestly. Grad school is something else, though…” He shook his head. “But what about you? You said you and Daichi were roommates in college, so I assume you went to college. Did you go to UW?”

“No, we went to Seattle U,” Asahi said. “I got my degree in English. Daichi’s is in engineering.”

Noya whistled. “Engineering,” he said. “Wow. Sounds intense.”

“Yeah, he ended up taking an extra year it was so intense.” He paused, and remembered that he didn’t actually know what Noya was going to school for, so he asked.

“Art History,” Noya said. “I’m not a good enough artist to get into a studio grad program, probably.”

“’Probably’?” Asahi asked. “Did you try?”

“Nah,” Noya admitted. “I don’t have a solid enough portfolio. It’s more of a hobby, anyway.”

“What sort of art do you do?” Asahi’s eyes wandered to Noya’s small hands as they curled around the paper coffee cup in front of him, trying to imagine what beautiful works they could create.

“Oh, just painting and stuff,” Noya said. “It’s not all that exciting.”

“More exciting than and English degree,” Asahi said with a small smile.

Noya laughed again. “I mean, you have an English degree and work in a bookstore,” he said. “That sounds like the dream right there.”

Asahi thought about it for a moment. “I guess,” he said. “I’m content, anyway.”

“Well, at least you’re not unhappy.”

He wasn’t quite sure what to make of that statement. He guessed that he never really thought much about it, about whether or not he was happy, and he supposed that meant that it was true that he wasn’t unhappy. But was that enough for him? He looked out the window as the silence between them dragged on, though the coffee shop itself was busy and bustling. He didn’t hear any of it. He didn’t hear when Noya said his name once, twice, a third time.

“Hey, Asahi.” The voice finally broke through and the off-work bookstore clerk jerked his head over in Noya’s direction.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed. “I was just…lost in thought, I guess.”

Noya had a warm and understanding smile on his lips, though his eyes looked a little sad. “Yeah, no, I’m sorry,” he said. “I just got kinda personal and deep and…” He laughed a little. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Asahi insisted. “It’s…kind of nice. I guess it’s kind of refreshing to think about things I don’t usually think about. What about you?” he asked. “What makes you happy?”

His companion shrugged his narrow shoulders and took another sip from his coffee. “Coffee makes me happy,” he said, trying his best to make his teasing smile look honest. “People make me happy. Like getting to know people. People are just so fascinating.”

“I’m not,” Asahi said before he could stop himself.

“Sure you are,” Noya replied. “The simple act of being human makes you fascinating. There’s so much about you that you don’t even know. I love discovering those things with people.” Asahi couldn’t stop his eyebrows from raising in curiosity. Noya continued. “When people learn things about themselves, it gets them one step closer to being who they were meant to be. And when you see others discover things, you discover things about yourself. And if nothing else makes me happy, I make myself happy, ‘cause I’m just so great.”

Asahi covered his mouth when he laughed. “You sure are something else,” he said, warmth seeping into his cheeks.

Noya smiled. “I try,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone was curious, before Noya knew Asahi's name, he referred to him as "the hot one". 
> 
> Also it was pointed out to me that in chapter one I said that Daichi didn't go to college but I changed my mind and that has now been corrected. Sorry about the faulty continuity. Despite what you may have originally read in Chapter 1, Daichi went to college. He has an entire backstory centered around him going to college.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asahi and Daichi have a heart-to-heart and Asahi and Noya go on a date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy heck this is a long chapter. Buckle up everybody. There's talk of and the drinking of beer.

Asahi learned very quickly that Noya was the kind of person who texted constantly. If it had been anyone else, he might have been annoyed by the random philosophical texts at three in the morning, or updates on the squirrel trying to outsmart a bird feeder on campus. It wasn’t long before he received an invite to install an app called SnapChat, and once he did that, he got visual updates on Noya’s day.

It was in the middle of a series of Snaps that a text came through.

> I know it’s sorta last minute, but dinner tonight?

Asahi had been keeping his evenings free for days in the anticipation of this moment. A small smirk graced his lips as he sent his reply.

>> Let me check my schedule and get back to you.

“No phones at work,” Daichi teased as he appeared out of one of the aisles. He propped his elbows on the counter and leaned over. “Is that Noya?”

Asahi’s face began to darken, and he tried to reply casually. “Yeah,” he said. “He wants to have dinner tonight.”

“Well, you’re not doing anything, right?” Daichi said. “You should go.”

“Oh, of course I’m going,” Asahi said. “I’m nervous, though.”

“Why? You like him, right? And he obviously likes you. You’ve gotten coffee with him a couple times, and you’ve enjoyed that.”

He thought about his time with Noya, and about the time he had spent with other people he had dated before they were actually dating. “Yeah, but that’s how it’s always been. Just because I like being friends with someone doesn’t mean we should date. What if I only want to be friends with him?”

“Do you want to be friends with him?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to sleep with him?”

Asahi slumped and rested his face on the counter. “What is with you two and your obsession with this?” he moaned, voice muffled. “Suga asked me that, too! I don’t know!” He was beginning to sound frustrated. Daichi placed a hand gently on Asahi’s shoulder, causing him to start. Once relaxed, he let out a sigh. “I don’t know,” he said again. “It’s…confusing.” He looked up in time to see Daichi give him a nod.

“You don’t need to know anything right now,” Daichi said. “You don’t have to know anything ever, really. Just do what makes you happy in the present.” His smiling was warm, his eyes soft. 

Asahi was glad to have Daichi as his best friend. “Thanks,” he said, returning the smile. He looked down at the phone in his hand and the opened text conversation.

>> I’m free any time after work.

Noya’s response was almost immediate.

> Great!! I already got a reservation for 7! I’ll send you the address!

He looked up to see that Daichi was still smiling at him and found that he was wearing a grin himself.

“I like seeing you happy,” Daichi said, reaching across the counter and punching him softly on the shoulder.

“Speaking of happy,” Asahi said thoughtfully. “You and Suga?”

Daichi laughed nervously and Asahi was amused by the blush that crept onto his cheeks. “Yeah,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “How long have you known?”

“A while,” he said. “I mean, I sort of talked to Suga about it. Well, I mentioned it and he didn’t really deny it.”

“It’s not like I was trying to hide anything!”

“You know you can tell me about these things,” Asahi said.

“When have I ever hid anything from you?”

“Daichi,” Asahi said, his voice stern. “You hid everything from me in college. Don’t think I didn’t know.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Daichi crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back, not meeting Asahi’s gaze.

“It’s so obvious when you get laid,” Asahi said. “I knew every time.”

“ _Every_ time?” Daichi asked, glancing sidelong at his friend.

Asahi nodded. “And, I mean, you always told me about the girls, but… Daichi, it’s okay. I know you were drunk when you came out to me, and we never really talked about it afterwards… Or if you even remember. Or if it was even true…” He believed that some things didn’t need to be said to be understood, especially between good friends. “I know things might have been different in college, but we’re adults now. It’s okay.”

Daichi nodded, a small smile on his lips. “I… I think about that night a lot,” he said. “And I sort of wondered if _you_ remembered it.” He chuckled dryly. “Thanks for not bringing it up sooner, though. I don’t think I was ready for it. I mean, it’s still a little weird, but I’m okay with it.”

“Daichi,” Asahi said, his face serious. He reached across the counter and put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “I support you and your lifestyle.”

Daichi blinked at him, then laughed. His laugh was loud and deep, he wasn’t holding it back. It made Asahi laugh, too. “You don’t have to be so serious about it,” he said, patting Asahi’s arm. “But I appreciate it. And I’m here for you, too.” He offered Asahi his fist, and he bumped it.

\--

Asahi had plenty of time after work to go home and get ready for the evening. He googled the address once he got home and found out that it was actually really close to his place on Capitol Hill. It was a brewery that he had walked past many times but had no real interest in. Until now, of course. He sat his laptop aside and went over to his small closet. 

As soon as the rainy weather became the norm, Asahi rearranged his closet so that all his sweaters and flannels were in the front, while his polos, button-downs, and few t-shirts got pushed to the back. He shuffled through his sweaters, trying to find one that would do for the evening. The brewery was…well, it was a brewery. It wasn’t like Asahi was going to have to get dressed up. He wondered what Noya would be wearing.

He passed up sweater after sweater, then got to his collection of flannels. He preferred sweaters, and had way more of them than the flannels, but he was beginning to think that tonight was a flannel night. 

There was a red and black one that he really liked. It fit well. He pulled it off its hanger and tossed it onto his bed. He was about to move on to pants when he turned and looked at the shirt. It was the one that made him look like a lumberjack. He rubbed his chin to figure out how scruffy he was; the cleaner-shaven he was, the less he would look like a lumberjack. Was it really worth the time and effort it took just to avoid that? He rubbed at his cheeks some more and wandered into the bathroom.

The light was dim, so he wasn’t sure what he was hoping to accomplish. He looked himself over in the mirror, leaning in close. The summer tan he had acquired was almost gone already and he was nearly back to his winter pallor. His stubble was dark despite the fact that he had just shaved that morning. The patch that he kept longer needed a bit of a trim.

When he was finished shaving he decided to also redo his hair since the bun he had tied it in that morning was nearly completely loose. When he took the hair tie out, he was dissatisfied with the line it left and decided that he needed to wash his hair, so he might as well just take a full shower.

Once that was finished, he left the bathroom with a towel around his waist and took a seat on the edge of his bed, right next to the red flannel. He looked down at it.

“I can’t wear that,” he said aloud, then flopped back on the bed.

He rubbed at his eyes with the palms of his hands and groaned. He really wasn’t cut out for this dating thing. They were only going to a brewery. If he hadn’t shaved and showered, he still wouldn’t have been the grungiest person there. He was overthinking it. Even as he was thinking about how he was overthinking it, he was thinking about which pants he should wear, and if he should wear long socks or ankle socks, and which shoes would go best with the pants he was considering, and then if there was a better shirt he should wear.

It was all so much that he laughed at himself. “Shit,” he said, chuckling, staring at his ceiling. 

In the end, he decided that the red and black flannel would do just fine along with a pair of slim-fit jeans and worn sneakers. It was in that outfit, umbrella in hand, and a fresh bun knotted on the back of his head that he left his apartment at quarter-till-seven.

The sky was already dark, despite the fact that Daylight Saving Time hadn’t yet ended for the year. Even so, the sidewalks were illuminated with streetlamps and storefronts that lit the way. The sidewalks were crowded with people just beginning their nighttime adventures, lines already forming outside bars and clubs. Asahi was thankful that Noya had gotten a reservation, since they would probably have to wait otherwise.

He had five minutes to spare once he arrived, and that was after walking deliberately slow. It finally began to rain, so he opened his umbrella and waited.

It wasn’t long before that tuft of blond hair appeared out of the crowd down the sidewalk. Asahi felt a warmth in his cheeks that contradicted the cool droplets that blew around his protective umbrella. 

His hair was slicked down by the rain. He joined Asahi under the umbrella, and when he unthinkingly shook his head, Asahi got a nice misting. He laughed and wiped the light layer or rain water off his face. “Hey,” he said.

Noya smiled up at him, his almond eyes graced with a hint of remorse. “Hey, I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

“Just a couple minutes,” Asahi admitted. “I only live, like, five minutes away.”

“Really?” Noya asked, walking toward the door. “I just picked this place ‘cause it sounded pretty cool. Ryuu suggested it to me. I’ve never been to this part of town. You live here?” He held the door open for Asahi and looked around outside; busy sidewalks, loud noises, lots of lights. Asahi walked through the open door, and Noya followed.

Just as Asahi had expected, it was packed inside. Noya approached the greeter stand, where he spoke to the hostess. She got menus for them and led them to a table.

The table they were seated at was a booth next to the large window looking out onto the street. It was more than enough room for the two of them.

Asahi felt…surprisingly calm. Seeing Noya wearing a nice pair of dark skinny jeans and the same tan coat he was wearing before, which seemed to be cut perfectly for him, it all made Asahi feel at ease. He scooted into his booth and watched Noya as he removed the coat and put it on the booth where he then sat. A plain gray t-shirt was under it. Asahi hadn’t realized how small Noya was. Just all-over small.

Before they opened their menus or even had a chance to say anything, a server approached them. She greeted them with a large smile and a bounce in her step. “Hi!” she said, her blonde hair shining in the dim light of the brewery. “I’m Yachi, and I’ll be hanging out with you guys tonight! Do you know what you’ll be drinking?”

Asahi reached for the drink menu, but Noya stopped him with a shake of his head. He looked up at Yachi and said, “We’ll take one sampler. Oh, and waters.”

“Waters, of course!” Yachi jotted that down. “But we have three samplers.” She pulled a drink menu out of her apron and flipped a couple pages before handing it to Noya.

It was then that Asahi grabbed the drink menu from the table and found the section with the samplers. As Yachi explained them to Noya, Asahi followed along. He didn’t really know anything about beer, to be honest. He wasn’t ready to let Noya know that, though.

They eventually settled on the seasonal sampler, which had the brewery’s pumpkin stout along with three others. Asahi wasn’t sure what stout was, but Noya seemed excited about the pumpkin.

Their waitress was gone just as quickly as she had appeared, and Asahi turned his attention to the food menu.

“Asahi, can I tell you something?”

When Asahi looked up, Noya’s face matched the seriousness of his tone. It was somewhat off-putting and Asahi’s nerves returned. “Yeah, of course,” he said, feeling the clamminess return to his palms.

Those almond eyes were locked with his as he said, “I don’t know shit about beer. What did we just order?”

Asahi stared at him, blinking slowly. “We came to a brewery,” he said, forming his words with deliberate slowness. “We came to a brewery, and neither of us know anything about beer.”

Noya’s laughter rang throughout the entire dining room. “You, either?” he asked, eyes alight.

Asahi shook his head. “You sounded like you knew what you were talking about, though.”

“I was just reading the menu,” Noya admitted.

Asahi glanced at the drink menu again. “Were we looking at the same menu? Did she give you some secret insider menu or something?”

Noya shrugged. “I think they were the same. I don’t know. Do you even like beer? Man, I should’ve asked this before I brought you here…” Noya laughed nervously.

“I mean, beer isn’t _bad,_ ” Asahi said. “I don’t drink it a whole lot but it’s okay. It’s good to branch out every now and then.”

“Okay, good. If you don’t actually like it, I’ll drink the whole sampler myself, even if they’re gross. You know what?” He didn’t even pause long enough for Asahi to respond. “I don’t know if I like beer. I’ve never had _real_ beer, only, like, the cheap stuff. What if this stuff is awful?”

“It can’t be that awful,” Asahi said, looking around at all the people that were enjoying the beer. “I think I’ve had some of theirs before, like in a bottle. There’s one that Daichi really likes, I think it’s one of their summer brews. It was pretty good.” He actually wasn’t sure if he ever even tried it, despite Daichi’s constant insistence that he should.

Noya nodded and seemed to loosen up some; Asahi hadn’t realized just how tense he was, since he was just so thankful that his own anxieties hadn’t gotten the best of him. Noya stretched out with his hands on the table, drumming his fingers lightly before opening the menu. His head nodded slightly as he scanned it.

Asahi looked down at his own menu, not even sure what he was in the mood for.

“Do you want to get an appetizer?” Noya asked.

Asahi looked up and met his gaze. “Sure,” he said. “What were you thinking?”

Noya reached across the table and pointed to the picture on Asahi’s menu of the appetizer sampler.

“You’ve got a thing for samplers,” he commented.

“I just like to get a good idea of what a place has to offer,” Noya replied, sure in his convictions. “I’ll share whatever I get if you will!”

“Sure.” Asahi smiled and flipped through the menu some more. He now had this extra pressure on him to pick something that Noya would like. But then if Noya liked it too much, he might not get to eat much himself. “What are you thinking about getting?”

“Probably just a burger or something,” Noya said. Asahi watched him and his eyes suddenly grew wider. “No,” he said, looking up at Asahi dramatically. “Mac and cheese! With _bacon._ ”

The way Noya’s face lit up at the idea of macaroni and cheese (with bacon) made Asahi’s own face redden slightly. He was just…too cute to be real. Asahi chuckled lightly. “That sounds really good,” he said.

Their waitress came back with their waters on a tray in one hand and what looked like a long wooden paddle in the other. The paddle-like thing was actually the tray for the beer sampler. She put that down on the table first and then reached for one of the waters on the tray. When she removed it, she didn’t account for the shift in balance and the tray wobbled in her hand. Asahi saw a look of terror in her eyes in the split second between her realizing what she had just done and the second ice water toppling over.

“Oh my god,” she screeched. Luckily, it fell straight to the floor. It splattered Asahi’s feet a little bit, but nothing worse than the rain outside. It was also a good thing that it was a plastic cup and not a glass. “I am so sorry,” she said.

Noya laughed, though it was more at the situation than at poor Yachi. “It’s okay!” he said. “It’s just water! Are you okay, though? Did it get you?”

Asahi gathered what napkins he could and helped the frazzled waitress get the ice into the cup.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about this, I got it! I’m fine, sorry!”

Once the ice was contained and parts of the puddle mopped up, she straightened with a nervous smile. “I wish I could say that was the first time that happened today…” she said.

Noya barked another laugh and slapped the table.

Her face was red, but Noya’s laughter seemed to help her relax. “Sorry, I’ll go grab another water and then I can get your order!”

She hurried away and Asahi and Noya were left with the beer sampler and a single ice water.

Noya squinted at the beers as if they were about to say something offensive to him. He picked one up and inspected it closely, swirling it, smelling it.

“What are you doing?” Asahi asked after he kept this up for a good thirty seconds.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I think I’ve seen people do this sort of thing.”

“It’s not wine.”

“Dude, show some respect.” Noya hushed him and took a thoughtful sip. He made a face that said he was not okay with what he just put in his mouth and passed it to Asahi.

Asahi, however, kind of enjoyed it. He wasn’t sure which one it was, since Yachi ran off before she was able to tell them what each one was. He finished that sample glass.

“Did you like that one?” Noya asked.

“It wasn’t bad.”

Noya scrunched up his nose and shook his head. “Yeah… Not really my thing.”

Before they could sample another one, Yachi returned with the promised water. “Here’s this for you guys,” she said. “Sorry again about that! Did you guys know what you wanted?”

Noya waved away her apology. “I know what I want,” he said, then turned to Asahi. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah. But first, uh, could you tell us which of these are which?”

Yachi had seemed to have calmed down, but then the flustered look returned to her face. “Oh! I’m so sorry about that! Yeah, no problem!” She reached into her apron pocket and dug around for a moment. “It’s in here somewhere,” she said, pulling out old order tickets and receipts. Asahi hoped none of those were important. She finally pulled out a long strip of paper that had been folded neatly in fourths. She unfolded it and laid it out next to the beers, considered, then turned it around. “There we go,” she said, the paper displaying the names of the beers that were sitting on the paddle. 

“Oh, so the one we had was an IPA,” Noya said. “No wonder it was gross.”

“Yeah, they’re not for everyone I guess,” Asahi said. He had no idea what an IPA was.

“Now, what can I get you guys to eat?”

“Did we decide yes on the appetizer?” Noya asked.

“I think an appetizer can happen,” Asahi said, holding back the urge to make an awful _happetizer_ pun. He wasn’t sure that he and Noya were at the bad pun point of their relationship yet.

After the appetizer, Noya ordered his mac and cheese, and Asahi settled on a pulled pork sandwich. He had considered their red curry dish, but figured that would be kind of a weird thing to get at a brewery, so he went more traditional.

Once Yachi was gone, the two considered the beers again.

“You were excited for the pumpkin,” Asahi said. “Why not try that one?”

“I sampled first last time,” Noya said. “You pick one.”

Asahi picked one of the remaining beers and gave it a sniff before taking a sip. He shrugged and passed it to Noya, then drank some of his water. He watched as Noya took a sip.

“It’s not bad,” Noya said.

“You can finish that one.”

Noya nodded and emptied the glass with a sigh. “Oh, it’s not as good the second time.” He downed nearly half his water, then reached for the pumpkin stout. It was dark with surprisingly thick head for such a small amount of beer. Not to mention it was also vaguely orange. He smelled it and smiled, then took a sip. “Mmm,” he said. “I still don’t really get beer, and it’s kinda weird, but it’s not bad.” He passed the glass to Asahi.

“I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin,” Asahi said, taking a tiny sip. He thought about it, then passed the glass back to Noya. “Yeah, not a huge fan of pumpkin.”

Before too long, Yachi was back at their table with the appetizer sampler, and their beer sampler was depleted. Noya ended up ordering one of the pumpkin stouts, and Asahi just stuck with his water for the time being. He told Yachi that he would order something else when the food came, and both she and Noya found that acceptable.

They chatted, and it was very enjoyable. Noya did most of the talking, which Asahi didn’t really mind. He had to keep reminding himself to eat slowly or else he would devour the entire sampler before Noya paused his storytelling long enough to eat something. 

“You have a nice smile,” Noya suddenly said after an apparently introspective mouthful of nachos.

Asahi laughed nervously. “Thanks,” he said.

Noya’s own smile broadened. “Especially when you laugh.”

He could feel his face heating up. “Well, you have a really nice laugh,” Asahi said, barely holding Noya’s gaze. He wanted so much to look away, but he stayed strong. “It… It’s like you’re not holding back from being happy.”

Noya cocked his head to one side, a puzzled smile on his lips. “Why would anyone hold back their happiness?” he asked.

Asahi shrugged and suddenly felt stupid for trying to be romantic. The remains of the appetizer sampler were incredibly fascinating. “When you laugh it just makes me think that nothing bad can happen. It’s a good laugh.” He just couldn’t stop.

When he looked up again, Noya was leaned back in his booth, arms crossed over his chest. His gentle smile wasn’t contained to his mouth, but could be seen in the crinkles at the corner of his eyes and in the arch of his slender brows. They watched each other for a moment before Noya said, “I’m having a really good time.”

Asahi nodded in agreement. “Me, too,” he said. “I don’t want to jinx it, but I think our first date is going pretty well.”

“I mean, technically this is our third date,” Noya said, the smile turning into a grin.

Asahi thought about it. “I guess so,” he said.

Noya continued, “Though the first two were the sort of thing that if we weren’t on a date right now, those wouldn’t’ve been dates.”

“That oddly makes sense,” Asahi said. “I don’t think I considered them dates at the time, but in retrospect, they were kind of date-like.” To be fair, Suga had called the second one a date, but Asahi had dismissed it at the time.

Noya’s head nodded vigorously. “Exactly!” he said, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. “See? You get me. I like that you get me.”

Asahi laughed. “I guess so.” He smiled.

Dinner arrived and Asahi ordered one of the drinks from the sampler. He had already forgotten which one he had liked best, so he just went for the IPA, whatever that was. Yachi was happy to put the order in for him, and she offered to get Noya another one, since his was nearly gone. He was taking the bus home, so what harm could another beer do?

They were quiet for a few minutes as they enjoyed their first bites. After an acceptable amount of time had passed, Noya reached a fork over and skewered some of Asahi’s steak fries. He didn’t complain, but stole a forkful of Noya’s mac and cheese.

“Did you even get any bacon in that bite?” Noya asked.

“I don’t think so,” Asahi admitted.

“That’s the best part!” Noya dug out a couple chunks of bacon with his fork and held them out to Asahi.

For a brief moment, Asahi considered his options. He could ask Noya to just put it on his plate, or he could try to transfer it onto his own fork, or he could just take Noya’s fork. Before he could choose any of those options, he found himself leaning forward and biting the bacon right off the fork. Time seemed to slow down enough for him to catch a glimpse of Noya through his lashes; his eyes were wide, an extra sparkle shining in them from somewhere, and a very pleased smile lit up everything else. 

The moment was over and he leaned back to chew the bacon, clearing his throat before swallowing. His face was on fire and he couldn’t look anywhere but at his plate.

“You owe me a bite of your sandwich,” Noya said.

Asahi hadn’t considered how messy it would be to share the pulled pork sandwich when he ordered it. He cut a wedge out of it with the provided steak knife and before he could offer it to Noya, Noya snatched it off the plate himself. In a blink it was gone. Asahi’s eyes shot up to see where it was, but Noya had already shoved it in his mouth.

“Mmm,” he said, mouth still full. He chewed some more. Asahi wasn’t sure how so much food fit in such a small guy’s mouth. Even for Asahi, it would have been at least two bites, and since he wasn’t big on over-stuffing his mouth, he probably would have taken at least three. Noya finally swallowed. “That was pretty good. I mean, not better than my mac and cheese, but still pretty good.”

“Yeah,” Asahi said. “It’s not bad.”

They chatted for nearly an hour after they finished eating, both of them having another beer. Asahi could tell that Noya was getting tipsy because he kept having to go to the bathroom and was somehow louder than normal. Asahi didn’t mind though. When it came time for the checks, Asahi tried to get Noya to let him pay, since it didn’t seem fair that Noya had to commute further to get there. But Noya insisted that since he was the one who asked Asahi out, then he should pay.

“You get dinner, and I’ll get the drinks,” Asahi offered. Looking at the bill, that actually seemed to split it pretty evenly.

“Okay, but not the beer sampler. Just the beers.”

“Fine,” Asahi conceded, happy that he was able to pay for at least something.

They left Yachi a generous tip and thanked her again on their way out.

It was raining when they stepped outside and it looked like most of the people had found their ways indoors. Asahi popped open his umbrella. “I can walk you to the bus stop,” he offered.

“Sure. I need to catch the 43 back to the U District.”

“Yeah, I know the stop. That’s the one I take to work.”

They walked in silence for a little bit. Asahi listened to the sound of the rain on the pavement and the splashes from cars as they drove through puddles. He really loved his city, rain and all.

It was still another couple blocks to the bus stop. Noya spoke up. “Hey, Asahi.”

Asahi looked down at him.

Noya stopped walking so abruptly that he was without the shelter of the umbrella for a moment. Asahi covered him again and stood there, close. “I really did have a great time tonight,” he said, his voice quieter than usual, though it could have just been the rain. He looked up at Asahi and smiled. “Thanks for coming out with me.”

The blush started creeping back into Asahi’s face. “Thanks for asking me out,” he said. 

Noya laid a hand gently on Asahi’s chest. “Asahi?” he asked.

“Yeah?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Asahi wanted to say yes, but the connection from his brain to his mouth seemed to have stopped working. Instead, he leaned down as Noya pushed himself up, and they met halfway.

It was a brief kiss, but long enough for Noya’s fingers to curl into the fabric of Asahi’s sweater. Noya’s lips were so soft against his own. When they parted, they were both smiling.

“You’re gonna make me miss my bus,” Noya said, laughing.

“Can’t let that happen,” Asahi replied, his face warm, but in the best way possible.

When they started walking again, Asahi made sure that his outer hand was holding the umbrella, leaving his other one to dangle loose between the two of them. Noya must have noticed, because it wasn’t long before his fingers wove their way between Asahi’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dragged you through all that nothing but look YOU GOT A KISS you're frickin' welcome. Nerds.
> 
> Noya and Asahi both somehow represent my feelings toward beer. Most so Noya tbh (IPAs are gross), but I don't care for stouts... Despite my dislike for beer in general, living in Seattle has taught me a lot, so I figured I'd share this useless knowledge with you (and IPA stands for India Pale Ale, in case anyone was curious). Yachi is also very much me as a server. And she probably doesn't know anything about beer, either.
> 
> Also, if anyone's curious, 95% of the locations here are based off real places.
> 
> Comments are greatly appreciated! Show your support by leaving a comment! They really help motivate me to write more! c:


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a kinda short chapter, but I hope you enjoy! I also went back and fixed some typos in the previous chapter... There were a lot more than usual and I apologize...

Asahi woke up to his phone buzzing non-stop on his nightstand. It was buzzing so much that he thought someone was calling him. He glanced at the red numbers of his alarm clock to find that it was a little after two-thirty in the morning. Who was calling him at two-thirty in the morning?

When he grabbed the phone and squinted at its bright screen he was surprised to see that it was actually a string of text messages. And they were still coming.

>> Hey!

>> You’re probably sleeping

>> But I’m not

>> Obviously

>> I was laying here

>> Thinking

>> I had a lot of fun the other night

>> And I just wanted to thank you again

>> And I was wondering what our next move was

>> I really like you Asahi

>> And I think we should go out again

>> Sorry for all these texts

>> I hope I don’t wake you up

>> Anyway I’ll be on campus tomorrow

>> Are you working?

>> Either way I hope you have a great day today

Asahi stared at the thread, waiting to see if Noya would say anything else. He wanted to text back right then, but he also didn’t want to make Noya feel bad for waking him up. Instead, he just reread them. 

It took him a long time to fall back asleep.

\--

The next day, Asahi wasn’t scheduled to work until one. He didn’t want to miss Noya’s visit, but he also didn’t want to text back and seem too desperate. He biked over at eleven and figured he could just hang out for a while.

When he got to the bookstore, he was surprised to find his manager sitting behind the counter instead of Daichi, like he expected. The older man looked up with a bored expression when Asahi entered.

“Oh, you’re early,” Keishin said.

“I am?” He wanted to talk to Daichi. Keishin Ukai kind of scared him.

“You’re not scheduled until one,” he said, turning a page in the book he was reading. He wasn’t even looking at it.

“Oh, well…”

His eyes scanned Asahi’s face and he scratched his nose. “Well, you can clock in now if you really want,” he said. “It’s been slow, so there’s not much to do.”

“Ah, um… I wouldn’t want to waste your money, so… I’ll just come back at one, then.”

“Sure.” Keishin’s attention turned back to the book.

Asahi turned around and walked out of the store. He stood on the sidewalk for a moment, not sure what he was planning on doing with these two hours. There was always the option of texting Noya and seeing if he was around. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

> Why aren’t you working this morning?

He ended up texting Daichi instead. His response came quicker than Asahi was expecting.

>> Not feeling great. Still in bed.

Asahi looked at the time. It was nearly eleven-thirty.

> Are you okay?

>> Been better… What’s up?

He had originally wanted to talk to Daichi, about Noya and about life in general, but now it seemed petty.

> Accidentally came in early. Thought I was working at 11. Coach was there.

>> Yeah, I had to call him in… He didn’t seem thrilled… What’re you up to now?

> idk maybe I’ll just go home

>> Or you could see what Noya’s up to (wink emoji)

> …

He switched to his text thread with Noya and reread the texts from the night before.

> Hey I’m on the Ave but I don’t work until 1 are you around?

He figured that Noya wouldn’t be around until later, so he might as well go somewhere and stop standing awkwardly in front of the bookstore. He walked down to the Starbucks on the corner. When he opened the door, he was thankful to see that Noya’s friend wasn’t working, but he did recognize the tall blond barista from before.

Asahi walked up to order, and the barista, whose nametag said “kei”, didn’t even pretend to be interested in customer service. Asahi ordered a hot chocolate and sat down to wait.

His phone buzzed in his pocket as soon as he got comfortable, causing him to readjust in the seat to get it out of his pocket. 

>> I’m not currently around, but I can be!

> Okay.

>> I can be there in 15!!!

>> Sooner if I can get Ryuu to give me a ride :D

> I’m at the Starbucks.

>> :O

>> Getting Starbucks without me?????

>> How DARE you!!

Asahi smiled. The barista called out his drink and his retrieved it, then returned to his table.

> Please forgive me… orz

>> Hmm…

>> I guess I can.

>> Hey Asahi, guess what?

> ?

>> I’m not wearing any pants rn

Asahi nearly spit out the hot chocolate that he had just taken a sip of but managed to swallow it. He set his phone on the table next to the cup and put a hand over his mouth. His eyes lingered on the text until the screen went back. Was this guy for real? He wasn’t sure if he was amused or amazed by him. But he was definitely something. He cleared his throat and took another sip of the hot chocolate. The screen of his phone lit up with another text.

>> Ryuu’s gonna give me a ride

>> Be there soon

>> Don’t worry, I’ll wear pants

>> I was just in the middle of getting dressed

>> I hope I wasn’t oversharing…

> Haha no it’s okay!

>> See you soon!!!!!

Noya walked through the door five minutes later and greeted Asahi with a wave. “Look, pants!” he said loudly, motioning to the pants he was most definitely wearing.

“I’m glad,” Asahi said with a laugh.

Noya set his bag down on the table and said, “I’m gonna get something to drink. Do you need anything?”

Asahi held up his hot chocolate to say that he was fine.

He watched as Noya bounced up to the counter, much to Kei’s dismay. The tall barista seemed even more annoyed by Noya than he had before. The excitable grad student returned to the table and took a seat.

“That guy hates me,” he said. “It’s kinda funny, actually.”

“How can someone hating you be funny?”

“Well, it’s more that it’s amusing to annoy him. He’s always so uptight.”

Asahi nodded in some kind of agreement. He wasn’t sure if he actually agreed, but figured there wasn’t much harm.

“He knows I’m Ryuu’s roommate, and they give each other shit, so I guess it just sort of transfers over to me, too,” he explained. “Anyway, uh. How’s it going?”

“Good,” Asahi said. “Daichi’s home sick today.”

“Bummer.”

“Well, I’m honestly not sure if he’s sick or just…” He wasn’t sure what words he wanted to use, so he settled on, “Exhausted?”

“Ah,” Noya said, sipping his coffee. 

“How’re your classes going?” Asahi asked.

“Not bad,” he answered with a shrug. “I’m taking this lit class and the professor’s a total nerd.” He laughed a bit. “But in a good way.”

“Lit?” Asahi asked. “I thought you were doing art history?”

Noya turned his cup over in his hands as he talked. “Yeah, but I’m sort of focusing on the intersectionality of art and literature throughout history. I had to pick something pretty specific when I applied, and it seemed like an interesting topic. I haven’t really gotten too far into it, though.” He sighed. “I’m a little worried there won’t be enough to write my eventual thesis on.”

Asahi chewed on his lip, thoughtful. “Well, let me know if you ever need any help,” he said. “I don’t know a lot about historical fanart, but I do have an English degree.” He smiled. “And I work in a bookstore, if you weren’t aware. We’ve got plenty of old books laying around.”

Noya returned his smile and laughed. Then, much to Asahi’s surprise, he reached across the table, laying a hand on Asahi’s. “Thanks,” he said. “I mean that.” 

They stared at each other for a moment before Asahi chuckled nervously and looked away, though he let Noya keep his hand. “It’s no problem,” he said.

“So tell me about yourself,” Noya said.

“Oh, um… What do you want to know?”

Noya shrugged. “Anything. Like… Are you originally from here?”

“Yeah,” Asahi said. “Born and raised in Seattle, up in the Queen Anne neighborhood. When I was in college, though, my parents moved out of the city. They’re still close, though. What about you?”

“I was born in Atlanta,” he said. “Lived there until I went to college in New Orleans, and then I came here this past June.” He took a long sip of his coffee, then said, “Your turn.”

It took Asahi a moment to think of a question. “Do you have any siblings?”

“Older sister, still in Georgia. You?”

Asahi shook his head. “Only child.”

“You have that Only Child air about you,” Noya said, earning a raised eyebrow from Asahi. “That’s not a bad thing, though.”

Asahi chuckled. “I guess. Imagining you with an older sister isn’t that hard, either,” he said. “I bet you were an obnoxious little brother growing up.”

Noya shook his head. “Not…really,” he said, looking at his coffee cup that he now held in both hands.

“An admiring little brother?” Asahi asked.

Noya shook his head again. “I was…a complicated child,” he said with a wry smile.

Asahi understood that he didn’t want to say more about his childhood and moved on, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. “What about sports?” 

He shook his head. “Not since middle school.” He held up his hand, which Asahi just noticed had dried paint smudged across it, and wiggled his fingers. “Artist.”

“Ah, right.” He smiled, though he saw no reason why Noya couldn’t have been an athlete and an artist.

“What about you, strapping young man that you are?”

Asahi felt his cheeks turn pink at the ridiculous compliment. “I was on my high school’s volleyball team,” he said. “And on a club team in college.”

“Nice!” Noya said. “Varsity?”

“All four years,” Asahi admitted. He didn’t really like talking about it because it always felt like he was bragging. To be honest, his school’s team wasn’t very big to begin with, so it wasn’t all that impressive.

“Wow!” he exclaimed, his eyes wide. “You must’ve been pretty good, then, right?”

Asahi lifted his shoulders and glanced toward the window. “I guess. I play in a community league if, uh, if you want to come watch sometime…”

He was pleased to see Noya’s eyes light up at the offer. His head nodded so rapidly Asahi was afraid it would pop off. “I’d love to!” he said.

Asahi gave a relieved smile. “Cool, I’ll let you know when our next match is.”

They silently sipped their drinks for a couple minutes. Noya absently drummed his fingers on the table, but Asahi wasn’t sure if he was aware that he was doing it or not. His eyes wandered out the window as he listened to the chatter of those around him and the _t-t-tap, t-t-tap_ of Noya’s fingers.

“So,” Noya said, causing Asahi to turn his gaze. “Does this count as date four or is this a casual hangout?”

Asahi laughed, a pinkness rising in his cheeks. “Is there a point when you stop counting them?” he asked.

“I dunno,” Noya admitted, his face screwing up into a look of contemplation. Asahi thought it was cute. “I’ve never gotten past a seventh date, so I’m not really sure what happens after that.” His laugh sounded forced and Asahi didn’t like it. “Hey, don’t frown on my behalf,” Noya said suddenly. “I’ve just tried on a lot of hats and none of them really worked for me.” He shrugged, leaning back in his chair. 

_He’s been through a lot of shit._ Ryuu’s words echoed in his mind. What had been so wrong with those hats, Asahi asked himself. _Am I just another hat?_ He swallowed hard and took another sip of his hot chocolate. It wasn’t too late to bail.

Noya continued talking. “I mean, not that people are hats,” he was saying. “That was a kind of bad analogy. But you get what I’m saying, right?” He shrugged again and didn’t wait for Asahi to answer before going on. “I mean, you’re definitely not a hat. But if you were, you’d be a really great hat, maybe like one of those really warm winter hats, with the flaps.” Asahi listened as Noya tried to backpedal out of this hat hold he had placed himself in. “But, no… I don’t think I’d look too cool in one of those, but I feel like you’d be a good hat for me, so…” His voice trailed off. “What?” Asahi was smiling, amused. Noya wiped his face with both hands. “Can we just pretend I never mentioned hats? I don’t really even like hats. They flatten my hair weird…”

“Maybe that’s been your problem, then,” Asahi said, licking his lips as he selected his words. Noya looked up at him, surprised. “Maybe I’m a scarf.” He had seen Noya wearing scarves before, and he wore them well. 

Asahi could see Noya’s brain processing this idea, and his head nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I think maybe you’re right.” He grinned at Asahi, his whole face lighting up and a laugh bubbling from his lips. “You’re a scarf. I like scarves.”

Asahi smiled, and before he knew it he was leaning across the table. His large hand slid around the back of Noya’s slender neck and brought him slightly closer. He kissed him gently, shortly, but didn’t back away completely.

Noya’s blush reddened his nose first, then his cheeks, and even his ears. Asahi could feel warmth in his neck as Noya pressed himself ever so slightly into his palm. “Yeah,” he said, a small and almost shy smile on his lips. “I definitely like scarves.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for reading!!! I super appreciate comments and stuff, so don't forget to leave those!
> 
> Also, a line I wanted to include but couldn't fit it in anywhere, when Noya asked if this was their fourth date, Asahi was at some point going to say something like, "Well, you held my hand, so I'd call this a date."


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow it's time for the HOLIDAYS and also time for Cliche Seattle Dates! Also, sorry for the delay... Hah...

“What do you mean you don’t have any ugly Christmas sweaters?” Asahi was appalled by this Noya fact that just came to light. “You’re twenty-four years old!” To be fair, though, Asahi only had ugly Christmas sweaters because Daichi had bought him one their first Christmas as roommates because he, too, was appalled at Asahi’s lack of the internationally beloved holiday garment. After that first one, it was all downhill.

Noya shrugged. “I mean, I don’t really have a lot of stuff,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I can fully appreciate the dying irony of ugly Christmas sweaters.”

“’Dying irony’?” Asahi questioned. “What are you implying?”

“All I’m saying is, ugly Christmas sweaters have fully left the realm of ironic enjoyment and now I think people legitimately enjoy them for what they are. Yes, they’re ugly, but that’s what people like about them. If they were just Christmas sweaters, there would still be irony. But once the Man stamped that ‘ugly’ on there, there was no hope left for them. People enjoy ugly Christmas sweaters. They ironically enjoy Christmas sweaters that happen to be ugly.”

Asahi nodded, enjoying Noya’s view on something that he honestly hadn’t given much thought to. “So… If, hypothetically, you were given a sweater that was Christmas-themed and absolutely awful for the eyes… Would you wear it ironically?”

Noya didn’t even hesitate before he was off again. “Yes, because it, hypothetically, wasn’t gifted to me as an ugly Christmas sweater.”

“But if I gave you a specifically Ugly Christmas Sweater, trademark and all, it would no longer be ironic?”

“Since when has this become non-hypothetical? Are you giving me a sweater?” Noya’s eyebrows did that wiggling thing that Asahi wasn’t completely sure he was aware of. It was a mix of surprise and something else, maybe desire? Did Noya _want_ a Christmas sweater that happened to be atrociously unstylish?

Asahi shook his head with a laugh. “Well, I don’t have one for you right now, but if there were an occasion where I saw one in the kids’ section, I might grab it.”

Noya reached across the café table and punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Stop that,” he said, a grin on his face.

Ryuu walked over with a cleaning rag in his hand. “Yo,” he said. “Did I hear you guys talking about ugly Christmas sweaters?” He had a mischievous glint in his eye that if his manager were to see it, he might be asked to go home.

“Hell yeah!” Noya said.

“Well, I happen to have a secret in with someone who can get you amazingly ugly Christmas sweaters, handmade, totally one-of-a-kind.” He leaned on the table, a smug look on his face. It made Asahi nervous. Not to mention, he wanted to be the one to get Noya his first ugly Christmas sweater. He knew Ryuu was his best friend, but this was his thing. He didn’t like this feeling of jealousy welling up inside of him.

Surprisingly, Noya waved the offer away. “No thanks, bro,” he said. Though his reason wasn’t what Asahi had hoped for. “That is way too not-ironic for me.”

“Whatever you say. If you change your mind, though, let me know.”

Ryuu went back to work and left Asahi and Noya alone at their table again. There was a tea in front of Asahi that was getting cold. He wasn’t sure what his face was doing, but he was surprised when Noya asked, “What’s up?”

“Huh?”

“Your face,” Noya said. He propped an elbow on the table and leaned on his fist, watching Asahi with those almond eyes.

Asahi looked away, not wanting those eyes to pull all of his insecurities out so they could flop around on the table’s surface. “Ah, sorry.”

“Are you jealous?” Noya asked.

“No.”

He could hear the smile in Noya’s voice, despite not looking at him. “Asahi you don’t have to be jealous of Ryuu, I promise. He’s my best bro, and he’s been my best bro for a long time. But you…” Asahi stiffened when Noya laid a hand on his. “You’re my boyfriend.”

Asahi looked at him as his face bloomed a deep, warm red. “A-ah… Boyfriend?”

Noya smiled. “Yeah,” he said. “I mean, I know we haven’t really talked about it but… Is that okay?”

Noya’s eyes darted around Asahi’s face. His mouth was slightly open. It was totally okay. It was more than okay. But Asahi hadn’t thought much about it. He didn’t have time to process. And the longer he took to respond, the smaller Noya’s smile became.

“Sorry…” Noya’s voice was small. Too small. His eyes looked away, dejected, and he put his hands in his lap.

Asahi finally found his words. “N-no!” he said. “I mean, no, don’t be sorry. And yes, yes that’s okay. Uhm…” He smiled, waiting for Noya to look at him again.

Noya stopped breathing for a moment, then looked up. “It’s okay?” he asked.

Asahi nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll be your boyfriend.” He smiled sheepishly, his cheeks pink. 

“Get a room, you two!” Ryuu called from his spot behind the counter, causing Asahi to redden even more.

Noya ignored him and laughed, taking both of Asahi’s hands in his. “Awesome!” 

The way his face lit up made Asahi’s heart jump. His palms began to sweat but Noya didn’t seem bothered. 

Noya laughed and sat back in his chair, one hand still holding Asahi’s. When the laughing subsided, he sighed. “I can’t believe we’re talking about Christmas shit already, though,” he said.

Asahi nodded. “Yeah. I feel like it gets earlier every year…”

“It’s not even Thanksgiving!” Noya groaned. “I hate it. No more Christmas talk until I’ve eaten way too much turkey.”

Asahi chuckled, then a thought occurred to him. “Hey, what are you doing for Thanksgiving, anyway?” he asked. “Are you going back to Atlanta?”

A short bark of laughter erupted from Noya’s mouth, much to Asahi’s confusion. He didn’t think the question had been that funny, or really funny at all. “Nah,” he said. “I’m just gonna crash the Tanakas’ family dinner.”

“Oh,” Asahi said. Georgia was a pretty long way away to go just for a few days, he supposed. “You’re close with them, then?”

Noya shrugged. “I mean, I live in their basement, but I don’t actually see them too often. They’re nice enough people, I guess. They embarrass Ryuu a lot, which is always great. Plus his sister’s gonna be home, and she’s a- _fucking_ -mazing!” He laughed and the laughter was so pure as he momentarily lost himself in memories. “She came down to visit us in New Orleans at least a couple times a year while we were down there,” he said. “Always for Mardi Gras, of course. She’s a wild one, Saeko…”

“Wilder than Ryuu?” Asahi ventured to ask.

Noya hadn’t stopped chuckling to himself, though he was trying. “Ryuu’s tame compared to her,” he said, wiping away a tear. He lowered his voice and added, “He thinks he’s hot shit, but as soon as Saeko shows up, he turns into a loyal little puppy that follows her around. It’s kinda adorable.”

Asahi couldn’t help but smile. “Sounds like Thanksgiving is going to be pretty entertaining for you, then,” he said.

“What about you?”

“Going to my parents’,” he said. “It should be pretty quiet, just the three of us and a lot of great food.” He wanted Noya to be there, but he wasn’t sure how to ask. There was also a part of him that would have felt bad asking him to choose between him and the Tanakas, who sounded like a lot more of Noya’s kind of fun.

“Mmm,” Noya hummed with a smile. “That actually sounds pretty perfect. And exactly what I’d expect from your family.” 

“What do you mean by that?” Asahi was surprised. His family was pretty average by most familial standards, something he didn’t think Noya would be interested in.

“I just expected you to have a calm family,” he said. “Pretty chill.”

Asahi shrugged. “They have their moments.” 

Noya looked down at his phone that was laying on the table and checked the time. “I should get going,” he said, looking up at Asahi with an apologetic smile.

Asahi nodded and stood up before Noya did.

“Thanks for coming all the way out here even though you weren’t working today.” Noya stood up as well, and looked up at Asahi with a genuine smile stretched across his face.

Asahi shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal,” he said. “I needed an excuse to leave my apartment today, anyway.”

Noya wrapped his arms around Asahi’s waist and nuzzled into his chest. “I’m glad I could give you an excuse, then.”

Asahi’s arms wrapped around Noya’s slender shoulders and held him close for a moment. He ran his fingers through his loose hair and planted a soft kiss on the top of his head before letting him go. Noya stepped back reluctantly. “Get to class,” Asahi said.

Noya pushed himself up on his tip-toes and gave Asahi a quick kiss, complete with a grin. “I’ll see you this weekend,” he said.

Asahi nodded. “Yeah,” he said.

Noya grabbed his bag and headed toward the door. He smiled over his shoulder and said, “Happy Thanksgiving! Tell your parents I say ‘Hi’!”

“I will,” he said as he gave a small wave. “Don’t have too much fun!” Asahi grabbed his own bag and their cups. His still had some cooled tea in it, but it wasn’t like he was going to drink it. He dumped them in the trash and left.

\--

Asahi’s Thanksgiving passed without incident. His family was polite and glad to see him; they complained that he lived so close but never came to see them. The highlight of his day were the Snaps he got from Noya chronicling the Tanaka Family Thanksgiving. It really did seem like a lot of fun.

But Asahi was back in his small studio apartment with enough leftovers to last him at least another week, maybe longer if he decided he wanted to eat something else in between. He finally had to give in and turn his heat on. While waiting for it to kick in, he burritoed himself in his comforter and curled up on the bed with a sigh. He had a few hours left to himself before he was going to meet up with Noya.

If he had counted their coffee encounters correctly, this would be their seventh date. The number seven had haunted him since that conversation with Noya a few weeks before. Noya had never had a relationship last past the seventh date. Things seemed to be going well, so he kept telling himself that there was nothing to worry about. 

But telling himself not to worry had never gotten him very far before. It was one of those things that was much easier said than done, despite the fact that Asahi was a very diligent doer.

With a sigh, Asahi rolled over onto his back and looked up at the bleak ceiling. He thought about Noya, and how much he liked him. He really was a good guy. There was something bothering him, though, and as he laid there on his bed, wrapped in a blanket in a too-cold studio apartment, Suga’s and Daichi’s voices rattled around the back of his mind. 

“Do you want to sleep with him?” their voices echoed.

“I don’t want to mess up what we have right now,” Asahi answered aloud. He groaned and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “That’s a stupid excuse,” he told himself. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind it, I guess…” He pondered it some more and rolled over onto his side. He didn’t even know what Noya wanted, since it wasn’t like they talked about these things. And it wasn’t the sort of thing Asahi was about to bring up on this, the pivotal seventh date.

Before he knew it, the alarm he had set was going off, telling him that he must have dozed off. His entire body was covered in a thin layer of sweat thanks to the heater finally doing its one and only job. He threw the blanket off and rolled off his bed, his feet landing on the floor before he stood up. Stretching his arms above his head, he walked over to his closet. A yawn caught in the back of his throat as he pulled out a clean outfit.

Now that Thanksgiving was over, it was time for Christmas sweaters. He bypassed the ugly ones and chose one that actually looked nice; a dark green with metallic golden threads woven in. It wasn’t overly festive, but it was still November, so he didn’t want to overdo it.

Once he was dressed, he grabbed his coat and headed out the door. It wasn’t quite cold enough for it yet, but it would be later. And he figured he should take an umbrella, since you could never be too sure with this city.

He and Noya had agreed to meet downtown at the Westlake Center, since they could both easily bus there, and from there it would be a short walk to the famous Pike Place Market. Asahi could not believe that Noya had been in Seattle for five months and had yet to go to the market. It was a staple. Everyone who came to Seattle went to the market. Asahi still wasn’t very comfortable around Ryuu, but he was confident enough to be disappointed in him for not taking Noya sooner.

The bus was just as crowded as he had been expecting for a Saturday afternoon, but Asahi was lucky enough to snag himself a window seat by himself. Every time the bus stopped, he waited nervously for a stranger to take the seat next to him. It never happened. 

Westlake Center was really only a few blocks away, and he probably could have walked. But before he knew it, the bus pulled up at the stop he needed, and he got off. With his coat thrown over an arm and his umbrella clenched in his hand, he headed to the entrance down to the transit tunnel to wait for Noya. He hadn’t heard from Noya in a while and pulled out his phone.

> Hey, I’m here.

He had to wait nearly five minutes for a response, but when his phone vibrated, it kept vibrating. Asahi looked at the screen and saw that Noya was calling him.

He didn’t even get a chance to greet him before Noya started talking. “Asahi! I’m so sorry! I haven’t even left yet! I was painting and I was just in the _zone_ and I lost track of time I am so, so, _so _sorry!”__

__“It’s alright,” Asahi said when Noya paused for a breath. “We can reschedule if you were in the middle of—”_ _

__Noya’s voice cracked as he cut him off with a “No!” His voice sounded distant, like he put Asahi on speaker and was on the other side of the room. There was some shuffling and he was closer. “No,” he said again. “I’m getting ready now. I can be there in half an hour if you don’t mind waiting. Shit, Asahi, I’m so sorry… I fucked up.”_ _

__Asahi couldn’t help but smile to himself. “It’s okay,” he said. “I don’t mind waiting.”_ _

__“Good.” Noya’s voice was distant again. The sound of water running could be heard in the background, and Noya talked over it. “I just… need to… get this fucking paint off…” His voice sounded strained through gritted teeth. Asahi listened patiently on his end as Noya continued to curse the paint and himself. It was nearly five full minutes of this before the water turned off._ _

__“I wouldn’t have minded the paint,” Asahi said sheepishly._ _

__“Oh, now he tells me.” Asahi could practically hear Noya’s eyes rolling. “Don’t worry, though,” he added. “You’re still gonna get to see some of it. Shit is impossible to get off.” A closet door slid open and Asahi couldn’t hear what Noya was saying. When he emerged, he said, “I’m gonna finish getting dressed and text you when I’m on my way.”_ _

__“Okay,” Asahi replied._ _

__“I’ll see you soon. Sorry again.” Noya chuckled softly. “I’m a mess.”_ _

__Asahi hated when people told him to stop apologizing, so he just smiled and said, “See you soon.” He hung up and dropped his phone back into his pocket with a sigh. He hugged his coat tighter to his chest and waited._ _

__It was another ten minutes before Noya texted to say that he was on his way. He continued to text as the bus carried him closer, keeping Asahi up-to-date on his progress. He sent some Snaps, too; a few of other riders, some of the city through the window, and Noya’s signature bus selfie. Asahi took a screenshot of that one to add to his collection, and sent an awkward selfie back—he was never very good at being photographed. His face blushed at the notification that Noya saved it, too._ _

__Noya’s last text told Asahi that he was entering the transit tunnel so he’d be there soon. Asahi was thankful; he was tired of waiting around awkwardly. He hated waiting or being early places, but he found himself thinking that he would wait forever for Noya if he had to. A small smile crept onto his face as he thought about how stupidly cliché that sounded._ _

__> > Coming out!!!_ _

__Asahi rocked back on his heels as he eagerly watched the tunnel entrance. After a minute or so with no sign of Noya, Asahi looked around. Sure enough, there he was across the street having emerged from the wrong exit. Asahi couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he crossed the street to greet him. His phone vibrated in his pocket._ _

__> > Where you at?_ _

__He stepped up next to Noya and said, “Right here.”_ _

__The shorter young man turned with a smile. “Hey,” he said. “Sorry again for being so late…”_ _

__Asahi looked at Noya’s arms, where the sleeves of his hoodie were rolled up to reveal the remains of dried paint. “It’s really okay,” he said. “I feel a little bad interrupting your creative process.”_ _

__“The creative process can wait,” Noya said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Inspiration always hits at the worst times, though…” He shrugged._ _

__“Can I ask what you were working on?”_ _

__Noya let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, it’s nothing,” he said. “Just, uh, a thing.” He smiled up at Asahi, who decided to leave it at that._ _

__“Ready to hit the market?” Asahi asked._ _

__“Only after some coffee,” Noya said. “I was so far in the zone that I haven’t even caffeinated myself today…” He rubbed at his eyes and smiled._ _

__“Guess our first stop is going to be the original Starbucks, then!”_ _

__Noya nodded eagerly. “Yes!” he said. “That sounds awesome!”_ _

__Asahi turned to lead the way and Noya kept pace, sliding an arm through the crook of Asahi’s elbow._ _

__“So how was your Thanksgiving?” Noya asked as they walked. “You know all about mine already.”_ _

__Asahi chuckled and looked down at him. “Yeah. It was good. Nothing eventful. Ma made a really good Cajun turkey.”_ _

__Noya’s eyes lit up. “That sounds amazing!”_ _

__“Yeah, it was pretty good. I’ve still got some leftovers if you want to try some.”_ _

__“Mmm, my mouth is already watering…” Noya paused and then said, “Oh. I guess I forgot to eat today, too…”_ _

__Asahi looked down at him, surprised. “You remembered that you haven’t had any coffee but forgot that you hadn’t eaten?” he asked. “You really are a mess.”_ _

__A light laugh left Noya’s lips. “Yeah,” he said. “But I’m your mess.” When he smiled up at Asahi, it was broad and genuine, if not a little tired._ _

__Asahi’s heart fluttered in his chest. “I guess you are,” he said, returning the smile. He moved his arm, unlinking it from Noya’s and putting it over his shoulder instead. He pulled him close and kissed the top of his head._ _

__They stood in line for twenty minutes. They still weren’t even inside the front doors._ _

__“Asahi,” Noya said, his voice quiet._ _

__Asahi looked down at him. “Hmm?”_ _

__“I’m gonna pass out if I don’t get coffee soon. I mean, I get that this is the _original_ Starbucks, and that’s really cool and all, but I just really need coffee.”_ _

__He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t foreseen this happening. The line was always long, and that was why he had never actually been before. Noya blinked up at him sleepily. There was another Starbucks the next block over, but they had already been waiting for twenty minutes, and he didn’t want to waste that. He put his hands firmly on Noya’s shoulders. “Wait here,” he said, handing Noya his coat. “I’ll be back.” He turned and walked off at a brisk pace, faster than he’d be able to walk if he had to take Noya’s short legs into account._ _

__When Asahi returned less than ten minutes later, Noya was nearly to the door. He handed him the cup from the Starbucks a block over, the caramel macchiato still steaming. Noya took it graciously, returning Asahi’s coat to him. “You didn’t have to go and do that,” he said, taking a sip. A smile spread across his face. “Thank you, though. Ah, it’s so good.” He took another sip and Asahi watched him, smiling. Noya looked at his and furrowed his brow. “You didn’t get anything for yourself, though.”_ _

__Asahi shrugged. “Well, since we’re in line here, I figured I could wait.” He smiled, then added, “I’m not going to judge you if you order something here, too.”_ _

__Noya laughed between sips. “Good to know. I mean, since we’re here, I feel like I should get something, right? It’s all part of the experience. Then I can say I’ve done it, and never have to wait in this awful line again.”_ _

__“I feel like such a tourist,” Asahi admitted._ _

__Something occurred to Noya and he handed Asahi his cup and fished his phone out of his pocket. “I need a picture of this!” he said, handing his phone to Asahi as well. He had the SnapChat app open. “Take a picture of me in front of the window!”_ _

__Asahi waited for Noya to get in position, then took his picture. Noya rejoined him in the line._ _

__“Ryuu’s gonna make so much fun of me,” he said, sending the Snap to his best friend. He sent it to Asahi, too, and his phone received it a moment later. Noya put his phone back in his pocket as the line moved them through the door._ _

__By the time they made it to the counter, Noya had finished the caramel macchiato that Asahi had gotten for him. He let Asahi order first, since he hadn’t had anything yet that day. “That’s not necessary,” he said, flustered._ _

__Noya nudged him the ribs. “Just order! You’re holding up the line!”_ _

__He ordered a peppermint white hot chocolate. Noya decided it sounded good, and ordered a peppermint white mocha. Asahi paid for both before Noya could protest._ _

__A moment later, Noya’s jaw dropped as the barista that took their order tossed their cups through the air to the bar barista. “I didn’t know that was a thing!” he said excitedly as they moved out of the way for the next customers to order. “Why didn’t you tell me that was a thing?”_ _

__Asahi laughed. “I wanted you to be surprised.”_ _

__“I thought it was just the fish they throw here!” Noya said. “Do they throw everything?” His eyes were wide as he looked up at Asahi, wide and full of wonder._ _

__“I’m not really sure. As far as I know it’s just fish and cups.”_ _

__Noya turned and watched the barista, who was finishing up Asahi’s drink. “Look sharp, Asahi!” he said. “She’s almost done. Get ready to catch.”_ _

__He wasn’t sure if Noya actually believed the barista was going to throw his drink at him, but the thought of it made him laugh. To humor him, he leaned over in a ready position. Noya seemed almost disappointed when the barista just called out his name and put it on the counter. Noya’s drink was soon to follow._ _

__Despite the sun shining outside, when they stepped out they found that it was drizzling. Noya pulled his hood up and Asahi opened his umbrella._ _

__“Luckily most of the market is inside,” Asahi said as they left the final protections of the building. “What do you want to see first?”_ _

__Noya shrugged and swallowed his sip of coffee. “Dunno,” he said. “You’re the local. Be my tour guide!”_ _

__Asahi laughed. “Uhm, okay… Let’s just enter over here and walk around I guess.” They headed toward the entrance and Asahi added, “I’m not a very good tour guide, just so you know.”_ _

__Noya hugged Asahi’s arm, the one that was holding the umbrella. “That’s fine with me,” he said._ _

__They entered the crowded market and Asahi shook out his umbrella before collapsing it and returning it to his coat’s pocket. The main walkway was crowded with market-goers and Noya clung harder to Asahi’s arm._ _

__“Don’t lose me!” he joked._ _

__The crowds seemed to part to let Asahi’s large frame through. The couple walked slowly from stall to stall, looking at what all the vendors had to offer._ _

__Noya held up a kitschy t-shirt and grinned. “What do you think?” he asked._ _

__Asahi rolled his eyes, but laughed nonetheless. “It suits you,” he said._ _

__They stopped at a stall that sold homemade pastas. Noya gaped at the dark chocolate linguini in such an intense way that the clerk couldn’t help but laugh and offer him a sample. Noya gave Asahi a skeptical look before accepting to proffered raw pasta. He took a bite and chewed, offering a bite to Asahi as well._ _

__Asahi stared at the pasta with a raised eyebrow._ _

__“It’s actually not bad,” Noya admitted. His lips curled into a smile as Asahi plucked the pasta from his fingers with his teeth._ _

__He considered the pasta, then gave a shrug. “Yeah,” he said. “Not too bad.”_ _

__They thanked the pasta clerk and moved on._ _

__Asahi was surprised to find that Noya was enamored with every flower stand they passed; and there were quite a few of them. “You never struck me as the flower type,” he said._ _

__Noya gave him a mischievous grin and tugged at the hem of his hoodie, revealing his hip bone and lower stomach—not to mention the waistband of his boxers which caused Asahi to look away momentarily. Reaching from below the waistband and nearly to his navel was a vine with rosebuds, the largest one in full bloom right above his hip._ _

__Asahi couldn’t help but wonder what other things Noya was hiding under there. He blushed at the thought and managed to say, “Wow.”_ _

__Noya tugged his hoodie back down and grinned. “Like it?” he asked. “I designed it myself.”_ _

__“No way!”_ _

__Noya nodded. “Yeah, way,” he said. “I’ve got some more, too, but you’ve got to earn the right to see those.” His grin was accompanied by wiggling eyebrows and Asahi had to look elsewhere. “Maybe I could design something for you one day.” He nudged Asahi with his elbow._ _

__“Maybe,” he said. He suddenly became very aware that they were standing right in the middle of the walkway. “Well, let’s keep looking,” he said, turning and continuing on in the direction they were going._ _

__“Okay,” Noya agreed, amusement in the simple two syllables._ _

__Asahi walked through the crowd with ease, eyes passing over the goods for sale as he avoided making eye contact with the vendors and other shoppers. He approached another flower stand, looking over the winter selection as he idly wondered which flower would be a good tattoo for him. There was something about lilies that had always drawn him in, but he wasn’t sure if that meant anything; flowers always tended to mean things. He went to ask what Noya thought, but when he turned around, all he saw was a sea of strangers._ _

__“Noya?”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where'd he go? o:
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading!!! I'm gonna be pausing updates on this (and other things) for a little bit in order to write a special Seattle AU, which will hopefully be up in time for Asahi's birthday! I've got a lot on my plate irl rn so I haven't been able to write as much as I'd like... Which is why I'm giving myself until next freakin' year to get the Special done hah... Please hang tight! Feel free to leave comments or hmu on Tumblr (tiredasahi) in the mean time! I really appreciate your feedback and support! THANK YOU!!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank everyone for waiting so patiently for this chapter!!! I hope you all had a chance to check out the Seattle AU New Year's Special _Two Birthdays and a New Year_ , which is the reason for the temporary hiatus of this and other fics. It was a lot of fun to write, and you get to see some new characters, and it's a big party, and everyone is gay and nothing hurts.
> 
> Speaking of things hurting, I left you guys with a pretty awful cliff-hanger, didn't I??? Hehe sorry~
> 
> Anyway, enjoy this chapter! I hope some of you recognize the locales!

He had done it, he’d really done it. Asahi had managed to be so inattentive that he had lost Noya. It was an awful thing to have done, and Asahi couldn’t believe that he had let himself be so distracted. Why hadn’t he been holding his hand? He should have at least noticed the lack of chatter. But the fact was that he didn’t, he was too caught up in his own thoughts, and now Noya was gone.

He’ll be fine, he tried to tell himself. He’s an adult. He can take care of himself.

No one in the crowd seemed to notice Asahi’s distress, even as he propped himself up on his tip-toes to get an even higher view. He wanted to call out, but his voice was stuck in his throat as if he had swallowed a bottle of glue.

His legs carried him back in the direction he had come from, the crowd parting as he barreled through, his neck craning to look in every direction. Taking a break from cursing himself and his lack of attentiveness, Asahi found himself suddenly cursing the fact that Noya was so small. He shook his head to clear those thoughts away; he liked Noya’s petiteness. 

There was something looming over him telling him that this was the end, that Noya had gotten to the seventh date and panicked. He was probably long gone, and Asahi had missed his chance to stop him. The crowd seemed to grow around him as he began to shrink into himself. He hadn’t tried hard enough, he hadn’t done enough, he had just been a huge disappointment, and Noya had fled.

Something startled him and he realized it was his phone vibrating in his pocket. How could he have forgotten about that? He pulled it out and saw that it was Noya calling. He answered with shaking fingers.

“Yuu?”

There was a beat before Noya answered. “You’ve never called me by my first name before,” he said.

“Are you okay?” Asahi asked. “Where’d you go?”

A soft laugh filled his ear. “I’m fine. You don’t have to sound so worried. I’m sorry, I just got distracted by a stand. I, uh, don’t really know where I am in relation to you, though… Everything kind of looks the same. Oh, there’s a sausage stand. Man, those smell good.”

Asahi remembered passing a sausage stand and turned back in that direction. “Don’t move,” he said. “Stay there.”

“Sure thing,” Noya said. “I’m gonna get in line and get one, though. They smell way too good.”

“Okay,” Asahi said. “Okay, that’s good.”

There was another pause. “Asahi, are you okay?”

“Yeah!” Asahi said with a little too much enthusiasm. “I was just, uh, worried.”

With the next pause, the image of Noya smiling filled Asahi’s mind, and he felt at ease. He released a soft sigh as Noya said, “I’m fine. Get over here and get some sausage.”

Asahi saw the sausage stand up ahead and picked Noya out of the crowd. He sighed, saying, “I see you.” He watched as Noya looked around, his face lighting up when he laid eyes on him.

He gave a wave. “I see you, too!”

They both hung up and Asahi joined Noya in line. “The sausage does smell really good,” he said.

Noya bumped gently into him with a smile. “I got you something,” he said.

Asahi looked down and noticed the brown paper bag hanging from Noya’s arm. “O-oh?”

“Close your eyes,” Noya said, and Asahi obeyed. He felt Noya’s body against his, then Noya grumbled. “Lean down a bit.” Asahi once again obeyed and felt something light on his head. “Okay.”

Asahi opened his eyes to see Noya with his phone out and before he could even smile, Noya took a picture.

He turned the phone around so that Asahi could see the crown of flowers that he had placed on his head. The green of the leaves were vibrant against his dark hair, drawing in some of the color from his sweater. The flowers were small, a pinkish purple, their petals soft against his forehead.

“Oh,” his said, feeling the warmth creep into his cheeks.

“Do you like it?” Noya asked, his eyebrows raised, anxious for affirmation.

Asahi reached up and touched it gently, smiling. “I love it,” he said. “Thank you.”

“You have to wear it for the rest of the day,” Noya demanded. “’Cause you look amazing.” He reached up and tugged Asahi down so that he could kiss him, causing whatever qualms Asahi had left to melt away.

Noya was safe, he hadn’t run off, Asahi had just been overly-concerned, and maybe even a little paranoid. He never liked the way his brain instantly jumped to the worst conclusions, or the way it picked over every single detail of someone else’s actions.

He breathed deeply and stood up straight, Noya’s hand still on the breast of his sweater. A smile crossed his lips, and he said, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Noya’s broad grin could have out-shined the sun and Asahi couldn’t look away from its glow, even when his eyes began to water. Lucky for him, Noya turned away and stepped up to order a sausage.

They sat down at a tiny table in a cramped little seating area to eat. It was a good afternoon snack that would tide them over until dinner.

“This place is pretty neat,” Noya said after swallowing a bite. “It’s pretty much exactly what I expected.”

Asahi smiled. “There are some actual little shops a bit further down,” he said. “Or if we go back past where we started, there are more stalls. There are some shops downstairs, too.”

Noya’s mouth slacked and his eyes widened, staring past his sausage to Asahi’s face. “There’s a downstairs?” he asked. “Does this place ever end?”

“It ends eventually,” Asahi said with a chuckle, wiping his greasy fingers on a napkin. “There sure is a lot, though. I always sort of forget how big this place is.”

Their knees bumped under the table. “Thanks for coming with me,” Noya said. “I dunno if it’d be the same being here with anyone else.”

Asahi blushed and looked down at the empty plate in front of him. “Yeah,” he said. “It’s definitely best with you here.”

Noya tossed the rest of his sausage into his mouth and licked his fingers clean. He looked eagerly at Asahi and asked, “What about the Gum Wall?”

Asahi blanched. “No,” he said. “Where did you even hear about that?”

“Everyone knows about it.”

“I was sort of hoping you didn’t,” Asahi admitted with a sigh. “It’s gross.” He eyed Noya warily, not want to offend him, then asked with a reluctant sigh, “Do you really want to see it?” Noya’s vigorous nod made it hard for Asahi to say no. He sighed again. “Yeah, fine,” he said. “We’re close to it, anyway. And before you ask, I don’t have any gum.”

Noya fished into his pocket and pulled out a stick with a grin.

“I can’t believe you,” Asahi said, though there was amazement in his voice. “You are unbelievable.”

“Well, you better believe this!” Noya said, leaning over and kissing Asahi’s cheek with an overdramatic smack.

Asahi laughed and turned his head to plant a kiss on the tip of Noya’s nose.

“Mmm, sausage breath,” Noya said with a smile, cupping Asahi’s face and giving him a real kiss. The spiciness from Noya’s sausage lingered on Asahi’s lips even after Noya withdrew himself. He gave Asahi a smile, then stood up and collected their garbage.

The Gum Wall wasn’t too far from where they had taken their snack break. As they navigated the crowd, Noya popped the stick of gum into his mouth, dropping the wrapper in a waste bin. He slid his hand into Asahi’s and leaned against his arm. Asahi led him down the narrow staircase, and when the made it to the bottom, they were there.

“Here it is,” Asahi said, heaving an exasperated sigh.

Noya left his side, approaching the wall with a look of awe in his eyes. His lips were parted and Asahi momentarily worried that he might lose his gum.

The wall was brick, theoretically, but it was hard to tell from the layers of chewed gum that had been stuck to it. All colors were represented, colors Asahi didn’t even know that gum came in. Some of the wads had been carefully placed to spell out various things or makes shapes, mostly initials and hearts. Asahi was thankful that Noya only seemed to have the one stick of gum, or else his initials very well could have ended up there, as well.

Noya looked up, trying to judge how high the wads of gum went before the brick wall revealed itself out of reach. He pointed up there and looked back at Asahi. “I want to stick mine up there,” he said.

Asahi gave him an amused smile and hugged his coat to himself, contemplating whether he wanted to put it on or not. “And how do you intend to get it up there?” he asked, though he had some of idea of what Noya was planning.

Noya walked back over to Asahi and looked up at him. “You’re gonna lift me up,” he said.

One of Asahi’s eyebrows raised as he looked down at his small boyfriend. “Oh, really?” he asked.

The nod Noya gave him made it seem like he was so sure that this was going to happen, it was nothing but confident. 

“And why would I do that?” Asahi crossed his arms and looked away, feigning refusal.

“Because you know that if you don’t, I will climb you like a tree and get it up there anyway.” There was a glint in Noya’s eyes that told Asahi that he was serious, he’d do it if he had to.

Asahi laughed and let his arms fall to the side. “You got me there,” he said. “I guess I have no choice.” 

Noya beamed and grabbed Asahi’s hand, dragging him over toward the wall. He stopped and looked up. “There,” he said, pointing. “I wanna put it there.”

“Alright, I’ll do my best,” Asahi said. Before getting down to business, he put his coat on just so that he wasn’t holding it. He stood behind Noya and crouched down a little bit, wrapping his arms securely around Noya’s thin waist. When he lifted, his face got buried in the fabric of his jacket, and when he spoke, his voice was muffled. “Is that high enough?”

“You’ll have to move a little closer to the wall,” Noya said.

Asahi felt his face beginning to heat up against the small of Noya’s back. He was so small and so light, easy for Asahi to lift. He took a cautious step forward.

“A little more.”

He could feel Noya reaching up.

“Just a bit further,” Noya said through clenched teeth, and Asahi took another step. Noya wiggled momentarily before letting out a sudden cry. “I got it!” he said, but that was quickly followed by, “Oh my god, I touched it!”

Asahi stepped back and put Noya down. He looked up at the wad of gum, then back down to Noya, who was shaking his hands out in front of him. “Yeah, told you it was gross,” Asahi said, a knowing smirk on his lips.

“I need to wash my hands. Like right now.” He looked around frantically. Asahi reached into his coat pocket and produced a small bottle of hand sanitizer, and he took his gratefully. Once feeling cleaner, Noya handed the bottle back to his boyfriend and threw his arms around his neck. “Thanks,” he said, kissing his cheek.

“You’re lucky I come prepared,” he said, returning the kiss. “Can we get out of here now? I feel dirty just being near it.”

Noya nodded, then looked back up at the wad of gum he left on the wall. It was such a small thing, so inconsequential, and not at all unique, but it was something he had done, and something he had done with Asahi, and Asahi could see a small glimmer of pride in his eyes.

Asahi took Noya’s hand in his and led him back to the stairs, then up to the street level. “The sun’s going to be going down soon,” Asahi said. He chewed on his lip, deliberating, then added, “There’s a neat place to watch it from. It’s probably crowded, but…”

Noya squeezed his hand, looking up at him with a smile. “Lead the way,” he said.

The little park at the north end of the market was just as crowded as Asahi had expected. Even though it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when people should have been home with their families or recuperating from extravagant shopping sprees, it was still a Saturday, and Pike Place Market was still one of the most popular places in the city.

Despite all the families and the couples and the street performers, they found a spot near the railing that overlooked the highway and Puget Sound beyond. It drizzled lightly from the few clouds overhead, but it wasn’t enough for Asahi to take out his umbrella again. The sun was just reaching the tips of the distant mountains, illuminating the water with shimmering reds and golds.

Noya leaned his head against Asahi’s arm, nuzzling slightly, looking out at the sky.

Asahi watched him out of his periphery, enjoying the calmness of the moment, and Noya’s rare stillness. The rays of the sun bounced off his piercings and the droplets in his hair and made his face sparkle. Asahi could see a small smile on his lips, one he probably didn’t even realize was there. Then he shifted his gaze back out to the sky.

After a few minutes of silence between them, Noya straightened up and said, “Hey, we should take a picture before it gets too dark!”

“Sure,” Asahi said.

Noya turned around so that his back was to the sunset and pulled out his phone. Asahi turned around, as well, and put an arm around Noya’s shoulder. Noya pressed himself against Asahi’s side and grinned, holding up the camera for a selfie. “Hold on, we need one for SnapChat, too,” he said, opening the app. He threw up a V and added, “Make a face, Asahi!”

Asahi crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, which seemed good enough for Noya, who added a Pike Place filter to it before sending it off to pretty much everyone in his contacts. Asahi couldn’t help but blush, but managed to laugh. “You had to send it to everyone, didn’t you?”

“Of course,” Noya said, returning his phone to his pocket and turning to Asahi with a grin. The sunlight caught in his eyes and set them ablaze. “I need everyone to know how cute and silly my boyfriend is.” He leaned up for a kiss, and Asahi bent down to meet him halfway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, feel free to leave a comment or hit me up on Tumblr (tiredasahi) to chat! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. There will be more to come very soon!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait for this chapter! Now that Fly Away From Me is finished, I can focus on this and Raison d'Etre again! :D
> 
> This chapter went in a different direction from what I originally intended, but that's okay, right? It's a whopping 5k chapter, so I hope it was worth the wait. I didn't reread the last half of this, so let me know if there are any typos or anything!

Asahi sat out on the front stoop of his apartment complex a few days later. It was nearly noon and still chilly, but the fresh air was nice. He had made himself breakfast and the heat of his crusty two-burner stove had made the air in his apartment unbreathable, and half of his windows were painted shut. 

Over the last few weeks he had made more of an effort to carry his phone on him at all times. There wasn’t really a need for it before, but with Noya constantly on his, Asahi figured it would be better to be available 24/7. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket and opened the Snapchat app. It took him a few tries to get a good angle, something Noya had been coaching him in—even though he enjoyed every angle—and eventually got a good selfie with his apartment building in the background. “Beautiful day today!” he captioned it, then sent it off.

A reply came almost instantly and Asahi’s heart fluttered. Even after dating for a couple months, every one of Noya’s selfies was a gift that he cherished. He was at Starbucks, the bar in the background showed Ryuu hard at work, Noya’s face grinning in the foreground. “Not as beautiful as ur face!”

At first, Asahi took a selfie of the most horrific face he could make, but it was too much and he deleted it. He sent a picture of himself sticking his tongue out instead.

He got a picture of Noya in return giving a thumbs up with the caption, “Still beautiful!!!!!”

With a smile on his lips and a blush on his cheeks, Asahi got to his feet. He stretched his arms behind his back before going back inside. Surely the apartment had aired out, or he at least hoped it was more tolerable. He knew he should probably talk to his landlord about the sad state of his stove, but it wasn’t like he used it too often, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

His phone buzzed as he climbed the stairs up to his apartment, and he looked at it as he opened his door. It was a text from Daichi.

>> Suga had to cancel tonight… Are you and Noya going to make it weird if I still tag along? I could really use a distraction tonight, and I was kind of looking forward to this regardless… I don’t want it to be weird, though. Will it be weird?

Asahi couldn’t help but chuckle. Throughout their time together in college, Asahi had often been the third wheel to Daichi and whoever he was dating, and he was enjoying the irony of the tables being turned. He was bummed, though, that Suga couldn’t make it, especially since Suga was the one who proposed the idea in the first place.

> Don’t worry, it won’t be weird.

> Bummer that Suga can’t come…

>> Yeah, I know… I hope he’s okay. He was being pretty vague, but I didn’t want to push it.

> Probably a good idea…

> Still good to meet us at Westlake at 4?

>> Yeah! See you then!

The scent in the apartment had cleared out for the most part, thanks to the small fan in the kitchen window. It was at least tolerable. Asahi sat down on the edge of the bed as his phone buzzed again, this time a text from Noya.

>> I cant handle any more studying!!!

>> Come distract me!

>> Pleeeeeaase

> It’ll be a bit, but I can come.

> Let me just get dressed.

>> Yay!!!!!

> Don’t go anywhere!

>> K!

Asahi pushed himself back to his feet and wandered over to the closet.

It was over an hour later that Asahi made it to the Starbucks. He hadn’t heard anything else from Noya, so he just assumed that he had managed to go back to studying. It wasn’t like Noya to waste a Friday afternoon studying, but Asahi was impressed. His nose was deep in a textbook when Asahi approached him.

Asahi laid a hand on Noya’s shoulder and he was so startled that he nearly fell off his stool. He turned around with a grin, closing his textbook. 

“Took you long enough,” Noya said, wrapping his arms around Asahi’s waist. 

“Well, I wasn’t anticipating having to get ready for another couple hours,” he replied, engulfing Noya in his arms.

Noya laid his hands on Asahi’s chest and pushed him away gently, smiling up at him. “Sorry,” he said, though his grin disagreed. 

Asahi walked to the other side of the table and took a seat. The entire surface was covered with Noya’s study materials. He shuffled some of the papers out of the way, careful not to disrupt their order. “What’re you studying?”

Noya held up the textbook he had just closed to display the title. “Yay for early impressionism,” he said with zero evidence of cheer. “Why did I do this to myself?” He laid his head down on the table with a sigh.

Asahi reached over and patted his arm. “To learn more and better yourself,” he answered with mock certainty.

He was greeted by a blank stare, but that didn’t last long before Noya’s face broke into a smile and he laughed, taking Asahi’s hand in his own. “You make it sound so serious,” he said. 

“Your education is very serious,” Asahi replied, trying really hard not to smile.

“Well,” Noya said, straightening his face and meeting Asahi’s gaze. He held it for a moment before he had to look away, giggling. “I can’t,” he said between laughs. “I’ve been seriously studying all day. Please don’t make me do it anymore.”

With a smile of his own, Asahi levered himself over the table and kissed Noya’s cheek. “Okay,” he said, his voice soft and breathy against Noya’s skin. He took delight in the light flush that spread from the spot where his lips touched. Before he could pull away, though, Noya caught those lips with his own and Asahi could feel the smile there as they pressed together only momentarily.

“You’re too good to me, Asahi,” he said.

Asahi gave him a smile and pulled his hands away. “I’m going to grab something to drink.” He eyed the cup sitting near the edge of the table. “You okay?”

Noya lifted his cup, showing it was nearly half full. “Yeah, I’m good, thanks.”

He nodded and headed up to the counter.

Ryuu was washing dishes in the sink with his back to the register and Asahi placed his order with the tall, slightly disgruntled blond named Kei. He was polite enough, but Asahi could tell that he wasn’t thrilled to be there. He passed Asahi’s hot chocolate cup to the barista at the bar and Asahi paid and moved along.

As he waited near the delivery point, Ryuu must have noticed he was there. He turned to Asahi with a devious grin. “Hey!” he said, crossing over and leaning on the counter. “Come to keep Noya company?”

Asahi nodded and avoided his gaze. “Yeah,” he said. “We’re going out later.”

“The caroling thing, right?”

He lifted his eyes and nodded again. He wasn’t really surprised that Noya had disclosed their plans to his best friend and roommate—not that they were secret or anything—though Ryuu didn’t strike Asahi as the kind of guy who cared.

“I used to go to those when I was a kid,” he said. “Haven’t been in years, though.”

“Well, uh, you can tag along if you want,” Asahi said.

Ryuu shook his shaved head and laughed. “Nah, I wouldn’t wanna ruin your date night.”

“I mean, it’s not really like that,” Asahi said, his face reddening. He didn’t know why the idea of a date was making him embarrassed. It was technically a date, after all. “I mean, my friend Daichi, from the bookstore, will be there. Suga was going to come, too, but something came up.” The bar barista set the hot chocolate down on the counter. “So it really wouldn’t be intruding or anything.”

“I’ll think about it. And then yell at Noya for not inviting me along first.” He grinned.

Asahi nearly spilled his hot chocolate as he frantically waved his hands. “N-no need for that!” he said. “He probably just didn’t think about it.”

Ryuu laughed, loud and boisterous, causing Noya to look over. “He doesn’t think about a lot of things,” he said, giving his friend an innocent wave.

“Well, think about it, and let us know. We’re meeting Daichi at Westlake at 4.”

“Ah, I’m not off ‘til 5,” he said with a frown.

“That’s okay! You can meet up with us when you get off!” Asahi said, forcing himself to smile. He wanted to like Ryuu, maybe even be friends with him, but he needed to get over his fear first; hanging out with him might help, though he would then have to fight for Noya’s attention, and he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that.

Ryuu’s frown turned back into a smile as he pushed himself away from the counter. “Cool!” he said. “I’ll shoot Yuu a text later, then. But I should probably get back to work.”

Asahi nodded and gave a small, timid wave before heading back to the table, hot chocolate in hand.

Noya was grinning when Asahi rejoined him. “What was that about?” he asked.

“Oh, I just invited Ryuu to come with us tonight,” Asahi said.

Noya’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh?” he asked.

Asahi nodded and took a sip of his hot chocolate, getting mostly whipped cream. “Yeah, well, Suga had to cancel, and I feel sort of bad making Daichi be our third wheel, but he still wants to come, so…”

Noya reached across the table and punched his boyfriend lightly on the shoulder, smiling. “Look at you!” he said. “Making friends with Ryuu!” 

Asahi smiled sheepishly. “I’m surprised you hadn’t invited him,” he said. “But I guess it was sort of double-datey before.”

What remained of Noya’s coffee was lukewarm, but he drank it anyway, thoughtful. “Yeah, I guess that’s why I hadn’t thought about it. But that’s cool. He’s coming, right?”

Asahi nodded. “He’s not off work until five, but he said he’ll text you.”

“Awesome!” Noya said after finishing his drink. “Bummer about Suga, though…”

“Yeah, I hope he’s alright… I think he’s working today, so maybe I’ll go check on him…”

Noya nodded. “Yeah, we can stop by. I was gonna run home and drop my shit off if that’s cool?”

Asahi took another sip of his hot chocolate and nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine.” He watched as Noya began shoving books and papers into his black and green checkered backpack with little regard to basic organization. He smiled. “Guess you’re done studying,” he said once the table was cleared.

“I’ve been here all day,” Noya whined, sliding off his stool and tossing his backpack over his shoulder. “I think I’m gonna get another coffee, though.”

“Okay.” Asahi watched as Noya went up to the counter, placing his order with Kei and yelling back at Ryuu. He saw as Kei rolled his eyes and then turned to look out the window at the overcast sky, hoping that the rain would hold.

Noya came back over with his coffee and Asahi stood up, grabbing his own cup and following Noya out the door.

“It’s just a short bus ride away,” Noya said as they crossed the busy University Way. “I hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Asahi said.

“And by short I mean, like, fifteen minutes.”

Asahi chuckled. “That’s fine,” he said.

“Cool.” 

“How long until the bus comes?” Asahi asked.

Noya pulled out his phone to check the schedule. “Looks like we just missed one,” he said with a frown.

Asahi met his frown with a smile. “That will give us enough time to stop by the store and check on Suga.”

“Oh, right!” Noya said, slamming a fist into his hand. “I forgot! Good call.” He grinned and followed Asahi across the street toward the bookstore.

The bell tinkled when they opened the door into the quiet bookstore. It didn’t look like there was anyone there, but it was hard to tell with the rows of tall bookshelves. They had only taken a few steps in when a familiar gray-haired head popped out at the end of an aisle, though the face that joined it looked uncharacteristically tired.

Suga smiled at them as he approached, dark circles formed under his eyes. “Hey!” he said. “I didn’t expect to see you here today.”

Asahi gave a small smile. “Daichi said you weren’t feeling great,” he said, eying Suga warily. “And, to be honest, you don’t look great, either. You okay?”

Suga sighed and leaned an elbow on the front counter, rubbing his eyes with a thumb and forefinger. “I just haven’t been sleeping well lately, and it’s really catching up to me… I think I’m getting a cold and I want to nip it in the bud before it gets worse.”

Asahi frowned and Noya wandered off into the stacks. “That sucks,” he said.

“Yeah, I feel awful that I have to ditch you guys… I was really looking forward to it.”

Asahi nodded in understanding. “Well, we found your replacement so Daichi won’t be lonely.”

Suga raised an eyebrow, but he was too tired to leave it elevated for long. “Oh?”

“Yeah, Noya’s friend Ryuu is going to join us when he gets off work.”

Suga laughed, his teeth showing as he grinned. “I’m glad to see you’re getting along with him,” he said, still mirthful.

“I, uh, tolerate him, I guess,” Asahi said, rubbing his neck sheepishly. “Anyway, we just stopped by to see how you were. We’re heading back to Noya’s so he can get ready.”

Suga wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and chuckled.

“Stop it,” Asahi warned, a blush creeping into his cheeks.

“Asahi.” Noya’s voice drifted from an aisle before Noya himself appeared. He had his phone in his hand and was smiling faintly. “We should get to the bus stop,” he said, stopping next to Suga. He smiled up at him. “Sorry you’re feeling shitty,” he said. “Get some rest tonight, okay?”

Suga nodded. “Thanks,” he said, then looked back at Asahi. “Thanks for stopping by,” he added. “Tell Daichi again that I’m sorry and I’ll make it up to him later.”

It was Noya’s turn to wiggle his eyebrows, but Asahi grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the door before Suga could notice. “We’ll do that,” Asahi said over his shoulder, and exited the store.

Outside, Noya looped his arm around Asahi’s and leaned against him, smiling, and began walking south toward the bus stop a few blocks down. Asahi was appreciative of the warmth he added despite the fact that his left side was exposed to the chill. He was thankful it was still mild, though.

They stood at the bus stop in silence for a while and Asahi listened to the sounds of the campus. Students were everywhere and Asahi felt out of place without a backpack. When he looked over, Noya was looking at him and grinned when their eyes met.

“You look really great today, Asahi,” he said.

Asahi blushed and looked away. “Thanks,” he said, then looked back with a smile. “You’re looking good, too.”

Noya laughed. “Well, I’ll look even better once I change out of these frumpy studying clothes,” he said, glancing down at the loose hoodie he was wearing. It looked comfy, Asahi had to admit, but he knew Noya was more stylish than that.

Asahi reached over and slid his hand into the back pocket of Noya’s jeans, pulling him closer as he yelped with surprise but didn’t protest. Asahi laughed and kissed his temple. “At least you look comfy,” he said.

Noya wrapped an arm around Asahi’s neck and pulled him down into a kiss. He murmured against Asahi’s lips, smiling slightly. “I really didn’t intend for you to see me like this,” he admitted when he let Asahi go, allowing him to stand back up to his full height, his hand resting on his chest. “But if you like me at my best, it’s only fair that you see me at my worst, too.”

Asahi laughed and moved his thumb over the hem of Noya’s pocket absentmindedly. “If this is your worst, then you’re not human.” He ran his other hand over Noya’s gelled hair. “It’s not like you woke up like this.”

Noya patted Asahi’s chest gently, genially. “Pretty close, though, not gonna lie,” he said with a grin. He pushed himself up on his tip-toes to kiss Asahi again. This time when they broke away, Noya had a coy grin on his face. “If you keep that hand there much longer, we might have problems.”

Asahi quickly pulled his hand away and took a step back, heat rushing to his face. “S-sorry,” he mumbled.

Noya laughed and wrapped his arms around Asahi’s waist, pulling him close again and pressing his face into his chest. “I’m kidding,” he said. “Mostly.”

With apprehension, Asahi wrapped his arms around Noya as well, letting out a deep, quiet chuckle.

“Sorry, I’m the worst,” Noya said, his shoulders shaking in mirth.

“A little bit,” Asahi said, kissing the top of his head.

“Who’re you calling little?” Noya shot, glaring up at him. The glare didn’t last long and he smiled.

Asahi returned the smile, but before he could say anything else, the bus pulled up and Noya stepped away.

“This is us,” he said, and boarded with Asahi following behind him.

They found two seats together and sat down. Noya immediately reached for Asahi’s hand and twined their fingers together. Noya’s hands were so small and delicate compared to his own; paint was permanently stuck in his nailbeds as a reminder of what he could create.

Asahi hadn’t even seen any of his paintings before, but maybe now that they were heading to Noya’s house, he might get to see some. Whenever Asahi asked, Noya always avoided the topic in a way that suggested that he was embarrassed. It took a lot to embarrass Noya, so Asahi tried to avoid it, even though he found it incredibly cute and endearing when Noya stuttered and his eyes darted around trying to find the source of a new topic.

He rubbed his thumb over Noya’s knuckle and smiled softly to himself, looking past Noya as the city moved by outside the window. Noya raised their joined hands and pressed his lips to the back of Asahi’s before lowering them again and leaning against his shoulder. Asahi kissed the top of his head, his eyes still watching the scenery.

They spent the rest of the ride like that and before long Noya was lifting his head to announce their stop. “We’ve got just a couple blocks to walk, too,” he added as they stood up and made their way to the door. A few other people were exiting the bus, as well, and when it stopped, they filed out after them.

The street Noya led them down was narrow; the cars lining both sides leaving barely enough room for someone to drive down the middle. Those kinds of tight streets made Asahi nervous but he was thankful he wasn’t driving on them. They turned a corner onto a marginally wider street, one that wasn’t on a hill, and Asahi breathed easier. 

“I have to warn you, Asahi,” Noya said as they got close. “Our house is kinda a mess. I mean, I think you know Ryuu well enough to sort of expect that.”

Asahi couldn’t help but chuckle and bumped slightly against Noya’s shoulder. “And I doubt you’re much better.”

Noya laughed. “It’s a total bro-pad,” he said. “Ryuu doesn’t even let his parents visit anymore. They live in the main part of the house, and we’re kinda in the basement, but it’s all separate.”

Asahi nodded. “I see,” he said. His parents would insist they visit all the time if he lived in their basement.

“Though I bet it’s partly they don’t want to visit, either,” Noya added with a laugh. “But they let Ryuu do his own thing, so it’s cool. They’re pretty cool parents.”

Asahi remembered the Snaps from Thanksgiving and smiled, nodding. “You should come meet my parents sometime,” he said off-handedly.

Noya tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and stopped walking. “Uh, sure,” he said. Asahi looked at him, watching closely until he looked up with a smile on his face. “That would be really neat,” he said.

Asahi smiled in return, relieved. He didn’t mean to spring that on him so suddenly, and he definitely didn’t expect that reaction. He gave Noya’s hand a gentle squeeze. 

Noya nodded to the house they had stopped in front of. “This is it,” he said, leading Asahi up the stairs to the front yard.

“It’s cute,” Asahi said as they passed by some empty flower beds. “Who gardens?”

“Saeko used to, when she lived here,” Noya said. “Now they’re just empty all the time.”

“Bummer,” Asahi said with a frown.

There were stairs up to the front porch, but Noya led him around the side of the house to a side door. He unlocked it and let Asahi in first, entering after him and closing it behind them. He flicked on the light switch just inside the door, illuminating the room that had its blinds closed in darkness. “This is it,” he said, motioning to the room.

Asahi’s eyes scanned the area. A TV was on the wall near the door, a long couch facing it with a large coffee table in between. Dishes and magazines were strewn everywhere, covering nearly every surface. The light fixture on the ceiling seemed to have a bulb out.

“Make yourself at home,” Noya said, dropping his bag onto the floor at the end of the couch. “I’ll just be a minute.” He disappeared into the hallway and Asahi took a seat.

Behind the couch was a small seating area that was missing a table, but the small kitchen had a hole in the wall and counter space that had a couple of bar stools situated at it. That surface, of course, was covered in dishes and books and unopened mail. Asahi looked at the posters hanging on the walls, most of which were bands he had never heard of or movies he had never seen. There was a bookshelf near the hallway, and most of the novels were covered with dust, though a stack of comic books looked well-loved. 

He was curious to see Noya’s room, but didn’t want to overstep any boundaries. His fingers drummed impatiently on his thighs as he waited for Noya to finish getting ready. He looked down at his watch to see how they were doing for time; it was nearing three, so they still had time before they had to leave to meet up with Daichi. With a sigh, he leaned back and sank into the plush cushions of the couch.

Noya’s voice came from the hallway just moments after Asahi got himself comfortable. “Asahi, come here!” he called.

Asahi pulled himself out of the snug couch and cautiously approached the hallway. He followed where Noya’s voice had come from and the light that spilled out of his room. When he got to the doorway, he stood there for a moment, looking at the messy bed and the clothes strewn all over the floor; there wasn’t much for furniture aside from the bedside table and a desk. An easel stood in the corner, the canvas on it turned around. Other canvases, both blank and painted, were lined up on the floor.

Noya stood in front of the closet, his arms spread wide to show off his outfit. “What do you think?” he asked, doing a quick spin to show off the burgundy sweater he was wearing over a dark green button-down. He had a gray knit cap on his head, the blond of his bangs bright against it.

Asahi smiled. “You look great,” he said, stepping closing and pulling his small boyfriend into a hug. “And you’re right, much better than your frumpy studying clothes.”

Noya pushed away and looked up at him with a smirk. “I never thought I’d ever hear you say ‘frumpy’,” he said, chuckling lightly.

Asahi pulled him in close and kissed him, their smiling lips fitting together perfectly. “These are the things you do to me, Nishinoya,” he said. “I think it may be a problem.”

Noya pulled him back down and kissed him again. “I don’t see a problem,” he said quietly, breath warm against Asahi’s lips. He smiled at him, their faces so close that Asahi could see a fire burning deep in his eyes. And he wanted that fire, he wanted to get burned. 

He wrapped both arms snug around Noya, pressing one hand against the back of his head to hold them together as he parted Noya’s lips with his tongue and explored. His fingers dug into the fabric of his hat and he pulled it off, dropping it to the ground so that he could feel and gelled stiffness of Noya’s hair.

Noya didn’t fight it at all. His mouth opened willingly and his tongue met Asahi’s as his hands explored Asahi’s back. He wasn’t even bothered when he hat was removed and instead let out a light moan when Asahi’s fingers tugged lightly at his hair. One of his hands found the warmth of Asahi’s neck, his thumb brushing the stubble on his chin.

Asahi lost himself in every feeling and hadn’t realized that his eyes were closed until he opened them slightly and was met with Noya’s closed eyes and long lashes. He grinned into the kiss as he pulled Noya closer, accepting it as both of Noya’s arms wrapped around his neck, holding him down. He let his hands wander down to the small of Noya’s back, grabbing at the fabric of his sweater briefly before sinking into the back pockets of his jeans and holding securely onto his ass.

Noya made a small noise of contentment and stood up taller on his toes, making sure that there was as little space between them as possible.

After a few minutes, it was Asahi who pulled away, breathless. Noya lowered himself slightly, but Asahi let his head fall until their foreheads were gently touching. He could feel his palms sweating in Noya’s pockets, but he didn’t move them. He watched for a moment before Noya’s eyes fluttered open and he grinned.

“That was amazing, Asahi,” he said, wonder in his voice and in his eyes.

“Noya,” Asahi said quietly, fighting to keep himself from looking away. His heart beat double-time in his chest and he thought it might strangle him. He wanted to say something, but he wasn’t quite sure what is was. Not that it mattered, because all words got caught in his throat.

Noya looked up at him with a quizzical smile. “Asahi?”

He swallowed the lump in his throat and smiled back, not saying anything. He pulled his hands from Noya’s pockets and wrapped his arms around his waist, holding him securely before lifting him up; if his voice didn’t want to cooperate, there was only one thing he could do.

“A-Asahi?” Noya asked again, confused as Asahi carried him over to the bed and sat down on its edge, Noya in his lap.

With Noya’s weight no longer in his arms, Asahi ran a hand through Noya’s hair and smiled. “We made it past seven dates,” he managed to say, his expression soft.

Noya nodded and adjusted himself into a comfortable position against Asahi’s chest. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m glad.”

“Me too.”

They sat quietly for a minute or two, Noya leaning against Asahi’s chest where he undoubtedly could hear the rapid beating of his heart. After a while, Noya began to shift and Asahi’s hold on him loosened to allow him to resituate himself. He slid partially off Asahi’s lap, resting a knee on the mattress and throwing his other leg across him so that he was straddling his thighs. 

There was a question on Asahi’s lips as Noya cupped his face in both his hands, staring deeply into his eyes. Asahi found himself enjoying having to look up at Noya and gave him a nervous grin as he laid his hands on Noya’s thighs. Noya smiled and leaned down, kissing him softly and lovingly. Asahi’s fingers curled against the rough fabric of Noya’s jeans as he returned the kiss with just as much passion. His hands slid up Noya’s legs and under the hem of his sweater, causing Noya to tremble slightly and press himself closer. 

His skin was warm as he ran his fingers across, his soft touches urging Noya not to move away. Noya obliged until their chests were touching and their heartbeats thumped in tandem. 

They stayed together, their hands discovering new terrains while their lips stayed familiar, but after what seemed like years, Noya pulled away, a small smile on his reddened lips. He sat back on Asahi’s thighs, breathing as if he had just come up from underwater.

Asahi’s chest heaved with his own breath as Noya’s hands slid down to rest against his pecs. His thumbs moved against the skin of Noya’s back a couple more times before his extracted his hands and laid them once again on Noya’s thighs. He smiled, a warmth settling in his chest that had nothing to do with the placement of Noya’s hands.

“We should probably get going soon,” Noya said, though he remained right where he was.

Asahi nodded in agreement but made no effort to remove Noya from his lap. He gazed up at Noya, taking in the softness of his features and just appreciating how beautiful he was with that faint blush on his cheeks.

Noya blinked slowly at him and leaned down, kissing the tip of his nose. He grinned and finally stood up, stretching his stiff legs. He offered Asahi a hand and pulled him to his feet.

Asahi glanced over at the alarm clock on Noya’s bedside table. “What time do we need to catch the bus?” he asked, a frown worrying his brow.

Noya followed his eyes to the clock. “Shit,” he said. “We’ve got, like, two minutes.” He grabbed Asahi’s hand and dragged him out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, as usual! I appreciate all of you and I thrive on comments and reblogs! Find me on tumblr (tiredasahi) and come say hi! And again, if you saw any typos or anything, let me know! Thanks!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on some weird kind of roll today I guess??? This chapter has been in the works for months tbh. Like the end part I wrote in, like, November. It's taken me a long time to get here and I want to thank all of you for hanging in there and being so patient and always kudoing and commenting and all that good stuff. This chapter is probably the angstiest this fic will get and I want to apologize ahead of time for any tears that are shed for these two idiots. Per usual, if you see any typos or anything, let me know!!! :D

By some kind of miracle, Asahi and Noya made it out to the bus stop just as the bus was pulling up. Asahi was breathing heavily and trying his hardest to mask it—no one who biked regularly should get this winded, honestly—but Noya only seemed more energized by the “light jog”.

“Whew!” Noya said, plopping himself down in one of the seats. 

The only available doubles were in the middle of the bus where the two parts connected with the accordion-like walls and swiveling floor. Asahi hated those seats, since they faced inward and were so close together. He always felt like his legs were in the way when other people passed, and if he could only hate one thing in the world, it would be being an inconvenience to others. But it was worth it to sit next to his boyfriend, who leaned against his arm as soon as he sat down. He repositioned himself so that his arm was around Noya’s shoulders and Noya nestled snuggly against his chest with a sigh.

“So what’s this Figgy Pudding nonsense about, anyway?” Noya asked.

“Well, it’s this annual thing where caroling groups get together. I don’t really know the history of it, it’s just something I always went to with my parents. It’s fun and festive and all the groups are really good. There are some really neat a capella groups that usually dominate the awards.”

“Have you ever participated?”

“Me?” Asahi asked, then chuckled. “No,” he said. “I don’t sing.”

“I bet you sing awesomely, Asahi!”

“Nope,” he said. “It’s awful. I don’t even sing in the shower.”

“I used to be able to sing,” Noya said, shrugging against Asahi’s side.

“’Used to’?” Asahi asked.

“Yeah, when I was younger. Then the thrills of puberty happened.” 

Asahi tried to imagine what a prepubescent Noya would have sounded like but all he could imagine was a _My World 2.0_ -era Justin Bieber and that just made him uncomfortable. He shook his head to clear the thought away.

The bus bumped along and Asahi held Noya snug to his side, his thumb brushing lightly against the fabric of his sweater at his shoulder. His phone buzzed in his pocket and Noya leaned away slightly to allow him access. It was a message from Daichi.

>> This place is already so crowded! I’ll meet you outside the Starbucks when you get here. Take your time, though. No rush.

> We’re on the bus now and should be there pretty soon.

> We stopped to see Suga earlier. He’s looking rough :(

>> :(

“What’s up?” Noya asked, leaning against Asahi again.

“Daichi’s there. Any word from Ryuu yet?”

Noya pulled his phone out of his pocket and began laughing as soon as the screen lit up. Asahi looked over to see endless notifications from “Asslord [poop emoji]”, most of which seemed to be elongated, exasperated keyboard smashes. Noya skimmed through the thread, still chuckling to himself. “He’ll be coming when he’s off,” Noya said. “And that apparently can’t be soon enough.”

The bus pulled away from the last stop before going into the transit tunnel. Asahi sent Daichi a text letting him know that and slid his phone back into his pocket, where it would soon lose service. 

They spent the rest of the ride in comfortable silence. Asahi almost thought that Noya had fallen asleep against him, he was so still. When they got to their stop, though, Noya was on his feet in an instant, an excited grin on his face. Asahi followed him off the bus and toward the stairs that led out of the tunnel.

Outside, crowds were already gathering on the square and in the barricaded streets. Noya slipped his hand into Asahi’s as the bigger of the two led the way through the throngs of people. 

Daichi wasn’t too hard to find as he stood outside the Starbucks in his poofy orange coat. His bare hands were wrapped around a paper cup that he sipped on. A grin spread across his lips when he saw Asahi and Noya approached.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Asahi said.

“Asahi, it’s fine, it’s not even four yet,” Daichi said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “I just had nothing else to do so I came down a bit early. I already stopped by the information table and got us some programs.” He pulled the folded programs out of his back pocket and handed one to Asahi. “They’re doing an opening ceremony sort of thing at four-thirty, and then performances start at five. We can hang around here for a bit until then, or if there’s a group you really want to see, we can hunt down their stage to get a good spot.”

Asahi looked down at Noya to see if he had any input, but he was just gazing around at all the people in awe. Asahi himself hadn’t put that much thought into the evening and just figured they could walk around and see whatever; he honesty hadn’t expected Daichi to get so into it. “I’m fine with sticking around here for the opening,” he said.

Noya tugged on Asahi’s hand to get his attention before saying, “I’m gonna go grab a coffee. Do you want anything?”

He thought about it before answering, “Hot chocolate?”

“Good choice,” Daichi said, holding up his own cup.

Noya nodded and tugged on his hand again, this time encouraging him to lean over so he could kiss his cheek before he let go of his hand. “Okay, I’ll be back!” He looked through the windows into the Starbucks and turned back with a wry grin. “It might be a bit,” he added, then turned and left.

Asahi watched him go until he disappeared through the doors, then he turned to Daichi, a serious look on his face. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Daichi blinked at him. “Huh?”

“You’re acting weird,” Asahi said, narrowing his eyes at his best friend.

Daichi took a sip of his hot chocolate and looked pointedly away from Asahi. “Am I?” he asked scratching his cheek.

Asahi nodded once, firmly. “Yeah,” he said, then asked again, “What’s wrong?”

“I mean, nothing really,” he said. “Just worried about Suga, you know…”

Asahi didn’t believe that was all and frowned; there was something going on with Daichi that he was trying to distract himself from, Asahi had seen it before. But he knew that if Daichi didn’t want to talk about it, he wasn’t going to. “I guess,” he said. “It’s probably just a cold, though.”

Daichi nodded slowly and took another sip. “Yeah, he’s not originally from around here, so I guess he’s just sensitive to the shit weather.”

Asahi nodded, his eyes scanning the crowds absentmindedly.

“So, things are going well with you and Noya?” he asked.

A smile tugged at Asahi’s lips as he felt his cheeks redden slightly. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, things have been great.”

Daichi chuckled softly. “Well, you’ve got him buying you coffee, so that’s good,” he said, giving Asahi’s side a soft nudge. Asahi flushed some more. “I’m happy to see you happy, buddy,” he said.

“I really do like him a lot,” Asahi said, bashful eyes on the sidewalk in front of him.

“Is there a ‘but’ in there?” Daichi asked, leaning over and trying to make eye contact.

“No!” Asahi said, looking at him in surprise. “No, of course not!” he assured.

Daichi nodded once. “Good,” he said. “Just making sure.”

“He’s really great. Sometimes too great, I think.”

“You deserve great things, Asahi,” Daichi said. “Don’t forget that.”

“Yeah,” Asahi said with a slight nod. After a pause he added, “And you do, too.”

Daichi hummed softly, a noncommittal response, and took another sip.

Noya returned a few minutes later with a cup in each hand. He handed a tall cup to Asahi and smiled. “I decided to be festive and got you a peppermint hot chocolate, I hope that’s okay!”

Asahi took the cup and returned his boyfriend’s grin, giving him a nod. “What did you get for yourself?” he asked.

“Caramel brulee latte,” Noya said. He held up the cup to Asahi and asked, “Wanna try it?”

Asahi took the cup and tasted it. “Huh,” he said, handing it back to Noya. “Not bad.”

“Don’t let the caffeine screw with your head,” Noya said as he took his drink back, smirking.

Asahi stuck his tongue out at him before putting and arm around his shoulders and pulling him close.

Daichi smiled at the two of them before looking out over the crowd. “We should head over to the main stage if we want to actually be able to see anything,” he said.

“Asahi can always put me on his shoulders,” Noya said, bumping playfully against Asahi’s side.

They followed Daichi as he made his way into the crowd and across the street to the main stage that had been set up in the square.

“Oh, by the way,” Asahi started, “Did I tell you that Ryuu will be joining us?”

“Cool,” Daichi said. “Save me from this third wheel life.” He grinned at the other two.

“We’re not that bad, are we?” Noya asked, looking up at his boyfriend.

“I’ve seen worse,” Asahi replied, looking pointedly at Daichi.

They all shared a laugh as the crowd pressed in around them. It was a little much for Asahi, but with Noya by his side he was feeling okay. Noya energized him, in a way, giving him a sense of comfort that allowed him to put his worries aside and enjoy the moment. He was thankful, but he also worried that he was taking advantage of the situation, that maybe Noya didn’t feel the same way. As that thought crossed his mind, Noya’s hand slipped from his waist and into the back pocket of his jeans. Asahi gave a slight start, but smiled down at him, his cheeks flushed. Noya grinned cheekily up at him, giving his ass a gentle squeeze. Asahi hugged him closer with his one arm and kissed his exposed forehead.

Daichi ignored them and looked out over the crowd.

Asahi started again when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned sharply, Noya’s hand withdrawing from his pocket, and found a woman smiling at the two of them, her other hand on Noya’s shoulder.

“You two make such a beautiful couple!” she said.

Asahi’s face reddened and Noya answered for the both of them. “Thank you!” he said.

The woman squeezed both of their shoulders. “Bless you both,” she said with a smile and disappeared into the crowd.

“So beautiful,” Daichi teased.

Asahi buried his burning face in the scratchy fabric of Noya’s hat.

Noya just laughed and nuzzled into him.

 

Their cups were long empty by the time Ryuu arrived. He managed to find them easily enough in the crowd, even though he expressed with distaste how difficult it had been to actually get to them once they had been spotted. The opening ceremony was underway and between that and the ruckus made by the crowd, it was impossible to hold a conversation.

As they listened to the opening performers, Asahi watched Noya out of the corner of his eye. He seemed enthralled with the crowd and with the groups on stage, and his hand had slipped into Asahi’s pocket again, filling the space as if it belonged there. Asahi’s arm was around his shoulder and they leaned slightly against the other.

When the opening ceremony concluded, the crowd began to disperse to various locations to see individual groups perform. There were stations set up spanning a few blocks and before long the city streets were filled with carols. The group meandered aimlessly from one area to the next, staying for a song or two depending on how much they liked the group. Asahi never let go of Noya’s hand.

They made it to a quieter area and were finally able to chat. Ryuu commented on one of the groups that he remembered seeing when he was a kid. Daichi was quiet.

Noya was also strangely quiet. Asahi gave his hand a gentle squeeze and he looked up at him.

“Everything okay?” he asked quietly as Ryuu continued to talk half with his voice and half with his hands.

Noya smiled. “Yeah, I guess I’m just more tired than I thought,” he said, leaning against Asahi as they walked.

The winter sun had already set and the chill was setting in hard. Asahi was sure that Noya had probably been up early that day, so he couldn’t really blame him for being tired, ignoring all the coffee he had consumed. Did caffeine even do anything for him anymore? “Okay,” he said, squeezing his hand again.

As the evening went on, they saw dozens of caroling groups, and it was an overall pleasant evening. But Noya had only gotten quieter and it was making Asahi nervous. He didn’t want to press, since he was probably just tired, but he was still worried.

They had ended up going in a complete circle and wound up back near the main stage where they started. Asahi noticed Noya eying the Starbucks, which had its own group of carolers clad in festive red aprons. 

“Need another fix?” Asahi asked.

“I’m strongly considering it,” Noya answered as he fought off a yawn.

Asahi gave him a warm smile and gently tugged on his arm. “Let’s get you woken up, then,” he said. “I’ll get this one.”

Noya nodded and followed him, leaving Daichi and Ryuu outside.

The line was long, but they were moving quickly. It looked like they had all barista hands on deck for the festivities. As they waited, Asahi wrapped his arms around Noya’s shoulders from behind and rested his chin on top of his head, Noya pressing back into his chest. They waddled a little each time the line moved, but it was comfortable. Asahi smiled to himself. They ordered their drinks like that and Asahi paid with the app he had finally broken down and downloaded, then waddled down toward the end of the bar.

“Hey, Asahi,” Noya said as they waited, stepping away from Asahi so that he could turn and look at him. “There’s, uh, something I wanna tell you. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and I wanna tell you.”

“Okay,” Asahi said, watching him cautiously.

“Uh, not here, though,” he said, rocking back on his heels slightly.

Asahi raised an eyebrow. “Okay,” he said. “We can go back to my place, I guess.”

Noya nodded slowly, licking his lips as he thought about it. “I mean, we don’t have to leave right now,” he said. “I’m sure there are still things to see here, right?”

The barista called out their drinks and they picked them up. “It’s all pretty much the same as what we’ve seen,” Asahi said. “Possibly not as good. I think we saw all the good groups.”

“Okay,” Noya said. “If you’re sure.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Besides, you seem tired.”

Noya let a yawn escape as Asahi held the door open for him, then chuckled. “Yeah,” he said.

Daichi and Ryuu rejoined them quickly. “I think we’re going to head out,” Asahi said.

Daichi nodded but Ryuu frowned at Noya. “You okay, bro?” he asked.

“Yeah, just tired. It’s been a long day.”

Ryuu nodded, accepting that answer, then turned to Daichi. “I’m cool to stick around if you still wanna,” he said.

Daichi shrugged. “Sure,” he said.

“Behave yourself,” Noya warned, punching Ryuu’s shoulder.

“I can handle him,” Daichi assured. He pat Asahi’s shoulder. “See you later,” he added.

Asahi gave a small wave and took Noya’s hand in his own as they turned and headed for the bus stop.

They rode the bus in silence, Noya leaning his head on Asahi’s shoulder and only lifting it to take sips of his coffee. His leg was bouncing more than usual and Asahi couldn’t stop watching it out of the corner of his eye as he drank his tea.

He stood up when they got to their stop and Noya nearly fell over. He apologized and offered his hand. Noya took it and they walked off the bus together. They walked hand-in-hand for a couple blocks before Asahi lead him up the stairs of an old blue apartment building.

“This is it,” he said. “Home sweet home.”

“It’s cute,” Noya said as they stepped inside. A staircase greeted them on the left and Asahi led them up it.

He unlocked his door and let Noya step inside, turning on a light as he entered. He spread his arms, watching as Noya looked around. “Make yourself at home,” he said and kicked off his shoes. “I can take your jacket.”

Noya shed the jacket and handed it to Asahi, then sat himself down on the edge of the bed. Asahi hung the coats up and joined him.

“So what’s up?” he asked, sitting with his knee gently touching Noya’s.

Noya took a deep breath and downed the rest of his coffee, setting the empty cup on the floor. “I want to preface this by saying I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” he said, staring at the floor. “I…” He swallowed hard.

Asahi put a hand on his knee and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Take your time, Yuu,” he said.

Noya’s hands balled into fists in his lap. “Asahi, I’m trans,” he said. “I’m transgender. My body’s not like other guys’ and I don’t know if that’s okay with you or not, but I wanted to tell you before you found out some other way.”

He didn’t mean to pull his hand away, but before he knew it, Asahi was wringing his hands together in his lap as he thought about what Noya was saying. It was surprising, sure, but it wasn’t bad. It was just something to process.

Noya continued, his voice wavering. “I began transitioning when I was in college. That’s why I don’t talk to my parents anymore. Or why I don’t really talk about my past at all. It just…kinda sucks.” He sniffed and wiped his nose on the back of his hand before it returned to his lap. “I didn’t really want to fall for anyone,” he said. “I was perfectly happy with Ryuu being the only one out here who knew. But then I walked into that bookstore and I saw you and I talked to you and then I got coffee with you and before I knew it I was fucking falling for you and I tried so hard to talk myself out of it but I just needed you. And now I just feel so stupid…” His voice trailed off and Asahi finally had a chance to say something.

But he didn’t know what to say. The tears tracing wet lines on Noya’s face were too much for him to handle and he just didn’t know how to put his thoughts into words and he was afraid that any attempt might be harmful. He heard Noya’s words and he understood but he just couldn’t come up with a suitable response. All he could do was stare at him, lips slightly parted.

Noya took the silence poorly and stood up. He grabbed his coat and had his hand on the door before Asahi could stop him. The door opened and he stepped out into the hallway. “Merry Christmas,” he muttered, and closed the door behind him.

“Noya, wait!” His words came too late, but he jumped up and ran for the door, not even bothering to grab his coat or put on his shoes—socks were good enough. It must have been near freezing outside when they came in not half an hour ago. Noya was already halfway down the stairs. “Noya!” Asahi called after him, causing him to stop. He didn’t look up. “Noya, come back!” The neighbor’s annoying dog began to bark. Asahi met Noya on the stairs and he still wouldn’t look at him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m… Kind of slow to process things sometimes… I’m sorry.” He set his jaw firmly and put his hands on Noya’s shoulders, turning him, hoping to meet his eyes. Noya just looked at the floor. “Do you think I care about that?” he asked. “I like you. I like you for you.” Noya finally looked up at him through his lashes but didn’t say anything. “Please come back inside,” Asahi requested. “There’s so much more I want to say to you, but…not out here.” A slight blush crept over his cheeks.

Noya nodded quietly and let Asahi take his hand and lead him back to his apartment. Once they were back inside and Asahi locked the door behind him, Noya fell against his chest and just buried his face there.  
Asahi rubbed slowly, gentle circles on Noya’s back as his shoulders shook. “It’s okay,” he said, his voice as tender as his touch. “It’s alright.”

They remained like that for a while, Noya’s hat slipping off at some point, and eventually Noya’s tears soaked through the front of Asahi’s shirt but dried in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he finally said, his voice a croak.

“You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about,” Asahi said, fingers running through Noya’s loose hair. 

“I shoulda told you sooner…”

Asahi shook his head. “It’s okay. You didn’t have to tell me at all. But I don’t care. You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met.”

Noya looked up at him, his lips still trembling slightly. “I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too,” Asahi heard himself say, and even though it surprised him, he knew it wasn’t wrong. “I love everything about you,” he continued. “Every single part. You’re smart and funny and wild in ways I never thought I’d actually like in a person, but I love it in you. Because I love everything about you. And I respect you and everything you are and everything you’ve been through.” His thumb brushed over the swell of Noya’s cheek, wiping away the remains of tears. “But please… Don’t run out like that again.”

Noya nodded slowly, his entire body trembling. Asahi held him close, protectively, whispering soft “I love you”s into his hair as Noya’s fingers clung to Asahi’s sweater and he breathed deeply into his broad chest.

After a while, Noya pushed himself away, his eyes still red. “Asahi?” he said, still not quite able to make eye contact.

Asahi searched his face as he gave a “Hmm?” in reply.

“Would it be alright if I took a shower?” His eyes finally met Asahi’s and even though they glistened with tears, they still looked empty.

Asahi nodded. “Of course,” he said.

“Would it be alright if you joined me?”

A blush crept over Asahi’s cheeks, but he nodded again. “Of course,” he answered.

Noya pushed himself up, grabbing Asahi’s sweater in his fists, and pulled him down until their lips met briefly. “I love you,” he said with their lips barely apart.

“I love you, too, Yuu.”

Noya smiled. It was tired, but it was a smile, broad and genuine, reigniting something in his eyes. A weight lifted off of Asahi’s chest and he heaved a sigh, returning the smile.

“I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went to the Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition in 2014 and me and my girlfriend at the time had a woman tell us we were a beautiful couple and give us her blessing so yeah, shit like that happens all the time.
> 
> Thanks again for reading! Come talk to me on [tumblr](tiredasahi.tumblr.com)! :D


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I kinda skipped, like, a month of time... Because, well, idk, not a lot happened. Christmas happened. New Year's happened. If you haven't read [Two Birthdays and a New Year](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5586454/chapters/12874345), I suggest you do that before reading this chapter. It's not _really_ necessary, but this chapter takes place directly after it and sorta alludes to parts of it. But if you don't read it, that's okay, too. Just know that you're missing out on stuff.
> 
> And, per usual, I'm too lazy to proof-read, so if you see any typos or anything, let me know! Thanks!

"I didn't know you knew how to drive!" Nishinoya said as he hopped into the passenger's seat of Asahi's car. "I was all prepared to bus and everything! I've even got my walking shoes on!"

Asahi peeked down at the beat up Converse and laughed. "Those look like they'll fall apart if you take another step," he said as he tried to figure out if Noya had gotten them from the kids’ department.

"They're comfy as fuck, though," Noya said, and Asahi could see each individual toe as he wiggled them. "It's like walking barefoot."

"If you like being barefoot, then I guess that works." Asahi smiled as he put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb.

The couple had parted ways not even six hours prior, each sporting their own hangovers from the birthday/New Year’s party they had attended. Asahi was still feeling a little woozy, but Noya seemed to have recovered from the throbbing headache he had woke up with. Asahi was thankful; he wanted his boyfriend in top form when he met his parents for the first time. His own form wasn't as important, and he wished he felt a little better, but some home-cooked comfort food would do the trick.

He had actually already seen his parents that day, though it was just briefly to pick up the car. They had showered him with more than enough birthday affection in that time and he hoped that they would tone it down for when he and Noya arrived. He hadn't told them much of anything about the mystery boy, despite the fact that they had been dating for nearly three months. They respected that their son was a private person and Asahi had to admit that he was surprised by their initial lack of questions.

He spilled the beans to them about Noya when he was home for Thanksgiving and kept getting Snaps from the Tanaka Family Dinner. He had just sort of off-handedly mentioned that they were from his boyfriend and watched nervously as his parents exchanged looks but was overall relieved when they didn't push for more.

Then when they asked him about his birthday dinner, he asked if was okay if he brought his boyfriend along. The conversation was over the phone, his parents on speaker, and he could imagine the look they exchanged in that pause before they both eagerly agreed ("So you're finally letting us meet the mystery boy!" Ma had exclaimed).

The drive was short, only a fraction of the time it would have taken to bus, deep into the Seattle suburbs.

They had chatted idly the way there, and Noya kept asking what Asahi's parents are like, but Asahi just kept replying with, "They're great and you'll love them." It wasn't that he was hiding anything from him, he just wanted it to be a surprise.

"What if they don't like me?" Noya asked in a rare moment of self-doubt.

Asahi looked over as they stopped at a light and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry," he said. “They'll love you. I guarantee it."

Noya didn't seem convinced and sunk lower in his seat. "I'd feel a lot better if you told me something about them. Are they, like, immigrants?" He said it hesitantly, as if he was afraid of the concept.

"Well, they met in Japan," Asahi answered. "You can ask them for the story. They love to tell it."

Noya wasn't satisfied with that answer and sighed. "Have they written a book that I can just read instead?" he asked.

Asahi chuckled and turned into a subdivision. "Well, we're almost there, so you wouldn't have time to read it."

Noya sat in silence the rest of the time and Asahi watched him out of the corner of his eye as he gazed out the window and his leg started bouncing more and more.

They finally pulled into a driveway and Asahi turned off the car. He looked over at Noya. “We’re here,” he said.

Noya opened the car door without a word and stood up with a stretch. Asahi joined him outside the car, locking it, and looking up at the house. It was the house he had spent most of his life in; they moved there when he was in elementary school and he still remembered how hard it had been to change schools and lose all of his friends. But so many great memories were made in that house that made up for it. He smiled and took Noya’s hand. “Ready?” he asked.

Noya inhaled deeply and nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Let’s do this.”

Noya’s mouth was set into a firm line as they approached the front door. The effort he was putting in just made Asahi smile even harder. He knew what it was like to be anxious, and he didn’t blame Noya at all; he was just imagining later down the road when they can look back at how tense Noya was and laugh.

Asahi opened the door and stepped inside. “ _I’m home,_ ” he called out in Japanese as he kicked off his shoes.

Noya followed suit and tugged at Asahi’s arm nervously. “Asahi, I don’t know any Japanese,” he said, panic lacing every syllable.

“It’s okay,” Asahi assured him. “We all speak English just fine, too.”

A woman appeared in the hallway, the grin on her dark face revealing the wide gap between her front teeth. She was beautiful in a long, flowery dress, a burgundy sweater was tossed over her shoulders and drowned many lengths of tiny braids. She hurried over to hug Asahi, welcoming him home, and when she turned to Noya, Asahi was happy to see that he got to be taller than someone for once.

“Ma, this is Yuu Nishinoya,” he said. “Noya, this is my mom, Althea.”

“You can call me Yuu, ma’am,” Noya said as he began to offer a hand.

Ma pulled him in for a hug instead. “Of course! It’s so nice to finally meet you, Yuu! Please, call me Ma,” she said. “I would say that Asahi has told us so many good things, but he hasn’t really told us much at all.” She shot Asahi a glance and he paled slightly at the attack. “But please, come in!” She was just ushering them down the hallway and toward the kitchen when another woman appeared.

“Asahi, why didn’t you tell us you were dating a Japanese boy?” she demanded, though her annoyance dissipated when she laid eyes on Noya, and a soft smile crossed her lips.

“Noya, this is my _other_ mom, Aiko,” Asahi said. He watched closely as Noya’s eyes opened a tiny fraction wider, and he smiled.

“ _Hajimemashite,_ ” she said with a small bow.

“Uhm…” Noya bowed back but fiddled with the hem of his shirt. “I’m sorry, I don’t actually speak Japanese.”

She straightened up as a blush crept into her cheeks. “Oh, no, I’m sorry!” she said, giving Asahi a rough nudge. “If someone had told us a little something about you, we might have known that.”

Asahi gave a bashful grin and shrugged.

“Well, he didn’t tell me anything about you, either, so everyone gets to be surprised.”

“Except Asahi,” Ma quipped, though her smile was fond as she gazed up at her son. “Just like you to want everyone else to be surprised on _your_ birthday.”

Noya smiled knowingly at Asahi, who said, “I’ve had more than enough surprises today.”

“Well, don’t think you’re done being surprised,” Ma said as she scooted everyone into the next room.

Asahi’s other mom followed behind Noya, her dark bobbed hair bouncing excitedly. “Is it alright if I call you Yuu-kun?” she asked, dark eyes sparkling.

Noya’s eyes lit up as well. “Of course!” he said, grinning.

She hugged him then, her cheek pressed against his hair. “Good! Very good!” she said. “You can call me Kaa.”

“Like… ‘ _okaa-san_ ’?” Noya asked.

She nodded, pleased. “You _do_ know some Japanese!” she said.

Noya shrugged. “I picked some up here and there,” he admitted.

They entered the kitchen and were greeted by quite the spread of snacks and goodies that hadn’t been out when Asahi was there earlier. It was too much for him and he shrank in on himself, though he was smiling like an idiot. “Ma, Kaa, you didn’t need to…”

They both hugged him from either side, and the sight was rather comical. “Happy birthday, sweetheart,” Ma said.

“Happy birthday, dumpling,” Kaa echoed. She reached over and pulled Noya into the hug as well.

“Happy birthday, Asahi,” he added as Asahi wrapped his arms around all three of them.

He didn’t know what he had expected; his parents delivered so much love on a regular basis, and his birthdays were always more extravagant than he needed them to be, but he still found himself to be surprised. Kaa’s head was the highest, so it was her hair that he buried his face in to stop his tears. She rubbed gentle circles in his back as Ma squeezed him tighter, but the most distinct feeling was Noya’s warmth against his chest.

Kaa was the first to let go and reached up to wipe the tears from Asahi’s smiling face. “Always a blubberer,” she said teasingly, patting his cheek. 

He gently pulled her hand away with a laugh. “I’m not blubbering,” he said.

Ma let go next and motioned to the spread. “It’s too early for dinner still, but it’s never too early for snacks!” she said.

Noya’s arm remained around Asahi’s waist as he turned to look at the offerings. There was just so much. They’d surely be eating nothing but snacks for days. Asahi put his arms around Noya’s shoulder and smiled down at him for just a moment before pulling him toward the buffet table.

They loaded up paper plates with chips and cookies, a sure way to ruin the dinner that was awaiting them later that evening and currently filling the entire house with a mouth-watering aroma that could only be supplied by a home-cooked meal. The four of them relocated to the cozy living room.

As soon as her butt hit the recliner cushion, Kaa focused her attention on Noya. “So, Yuu-kun,” she said. “Tell us about yourself.”

On the couch, Asahi felt Noya tense up next to him, and when he looked over, his boyfriend was looking down at the plate in his lap. “Uhm, well…” he started. “I’m at UW in my first year of grad school.”

“What are you studying?” Ma asked as she nibbled on a cracker.

“Art history.”

“Oh, are you an artist?” Kaa asked.

Noya gave a slight shrug. “I guess.”

“He is,” Asahi insisted. He turned to Noya and asked, “Can I show them your present?”

“You have it?”

Asahi nodded earnestly. “It’s in the car. I wanted to show them, but I wanted to make sure it was okay.” His parents exchanged a curious glance.

“Yeah, sure,” Noya said.

Asahi nearly spilled his plate when he jumped up. He set it on the end table and leaned over to kiss Noya’s cheek. “I’ll be right back,” he said.

Noya gave him a nervous look but nodded, then turned his attention back to Asahi’s parents.

Asahi made his way quickly out to the car, not even bothering to put his shoes back on. He knew Noya was still a bit uncomfortable, and he had learned that Noya wasn’t really someone to talk about himself, so he hoped his parents didn’t press him too hard. He had stowed his gift in the trunk, just in case Noya didn’t want him to show it off, and pulled it out carefully. 

Back inside, Asahi walked into the living holding the canvas backwards, a grin spread across his face. The sparse conversation halted and Noya sank lower into the couch, clutching his plate so tightly that it was starting to fold in half. Asahi looked at him, his expression asking if Noya was sure it was okay. Noya nodded and gave him a nervous smile. Asahi grinned and turned the canvas around, revealing the painting on the front side.

The canvas was 16x20 and depicted a scene of a cramped bookstore aisle. Boxes lined the floor and a footstool sat in the foreground. The spines of the books represented every color of the rainbow, an exciting array against the dull wood shelves. A figure was crouched at the end of the aisle, perusing the books on the bottom row, the knot of hair on the back of their head their only defining feature.

Kaa covered her mouth and glanced at Noya. “You painted this?” she asked as her wife stood up to get a closer look.

Noya blushed and nodded. “It was gonna be Asahi’s Christmas present, but then I found out that it was his birthday, too, so I got to shower him with twice as many gifts!”

“It was unnecessary,” Asahi said.

“It’s truly beautiful, Yuu-kun. You’re very talented.”

“Thank you.”

Asahi leaned the painting delicately against the coffee table so that his parents could continue admiring it as he reclaimed his seat next to Noya. He gave him a smile, equal parts pride and gratitude.

Noya seemed to be warming up, and while he was self-conscious about his art, he seemed to accept the proffered praise. “Asahi told me you two met in Japan,” he said. “I’d like to hear that story.”

Ma smiled as she sat back down in her rocking chair. She reached a hand over to rest softly on Kaa’s knee, who smiled as well. “So I guess he told you _something_ ,” she said jokingly.

“I had to really work it out of him,” Noya said, finally eating his snacks as he leaned lightly against Asahi’s shoulder.

“I went to school at UC Berkeley,” Ma said. “Back in the 80’s. I did a study abroad program in Japan for a semester, which was when I first met Aiko.”

Kaa blushed slightly, but smiled. “I was going to university in Tokyo. I thought Althea was just another annoying American,” she added with a laugh. “But she was so kind.”

“We stayed in touch after I came back to the states.”

“She wrote me endless love letters. It was so embarrassing!”

Ma giggled and she seemed ten years younger. “Aiko didn’t know what to do with them. Her responses were always so stiff and formal.”

“I came to visit the summer of ’86, and when she picked me up from the airport with a big bouquet of flowers, I knew that it would be a long time before I saw Japan again.”

“She only had one suitcase with her, but it was apparently all she needed.”

Kaa shook her head sadly when she said, “My parents never approved, of course, but I didn’t care. To them it was like my plane might as well have crashed into the ocean.”

“But Granny and Papa took her in,” Asahi added quickly when he saw Noya’s frown.

She nodded to confirm this. “They were so kind, and I finally understood where Althea got it from.” She smiled as she placed her hand on top of her wife’s. “I was lucky to have found such a wonderful family.” She looked over at Ma, the undeniable spark of love in her eyes.

A fond grin crossed Asahi’s face and he looked down at Noya, surprised to see the same look in his eyes. Noya beamed up at him for a moment before pressing his forehead into his shoulder. Asahi kissed the top of his head and gently squeezed his hand.

“What about you, Yuu?” Ma asked. “What about your parents?”

Asahi felt Noya tense again. “My parents?” he asked.

“They didn’t even teach you Japanese!” Kaa said in disbelief. 

“Well, they strongly believed in assimilation,” he said with a shrug, the line rehearsed as if he had to explain a hundred times before. “They wanted us to be good American children.”

Kaa shook her head. “What a pity,” she said. “Japanese culture is a beautiful thing.”

Ma nodded in agreement, still holding her wife’s hand. “It really is lovely.”

“I would love to learn about it,” Noya said, smiling. Asahi wasn’t sure if he was being sincere or polite.

“Well, we’ve got quite a feast cooking, and I think food is the best way to experience a culture,” Ma said.

“You do know how to use chopsticks at least, right?” Kaa asked.

Noya let out a small laugh. “Of course!” he said. “Using chopsticks was a form of rebellion in the Nishinoya household.”

“Oh, a rebellious one,” Kaa joked, a smile on her thin lips. “You better not rub off on well-behaved son.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve gotten it all out of my system,” Noya assured. “Really turned my life around.”

“Well, if Asahi likes you, then you can’t be that much of a delinquent,” Kaa said.

Asahi blushed. “Kaa…” he pleaded.

She smiled. “I’m just so happy to see you’ve found someone who makes you happy.”

Noya leaned against Asahi again and Asahi smiled down at him, putting an arm around his shoulder and pulling him closer.

\--

A couple hours later, the four had gathered around the dining room table for dinner. Despite the western-styled décor, the layout of the meal in front of them was very traditional. Ma had cooked up Asahi’s favorite fish dish that was paired with some roasted vegetables and plenty of rice. Kaa had made the soup herself, a recipe she learned in her childhood. It was an amazing meal and proved that Noya wasn’t as great with chopsticks as he thought he was, but he wasn’t at all bothered by the teasing. If anything, Asahi thought it made him more comfortable, and that made him happy; he was definitely loosening up.

Ma carried some dishes into the kitchen when they were finished eating and returned a few moments later with a birthday cake. “This part is the American part of the tradition,” she said, winking at Noya as she set the cake down in front of Asahi.

Asahi sat back as she lit the candles and he admired the work. “The cake is beautiful!” he said.

“We got it from that one little bakery that Aiko really likes,” she said.

“It’s owned by a Japanese family,” Kaa said. “They make some good traditional Japanese cakes from time to time, and everyone is really friendly there!”

Ma turned off the lights and returned to her seat.

Asahi looked over at Noya, whose eyes were examining the cake. His almond eyes were lit up by the candles and the blond in his hair glowed. Asahi felt his cheeks warm as something swirled deep down in his gut. Ma hummed a starting note and they began their rendition of “Happy Birthday”, Noya joining in as he flashed Asahi a smile.

When they finished, Asahi blew out the candles, a simple wish in his mind.

_I want this happiness to last forever._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For kind of an idea of what Noya's painting looks like, check [this](http://tiredasahi.tumblr.com/post/145725834577/tiredasahi-yesss) out! I took that picture a while back at the actual bookstore that Asahi's is based off of! :D
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading and supporting this fic! I've mentioned it on my [tumblr](tiredasahi.tumblr.com) that I'm going on summer hiatus soon, so I'll let you guys know, too. I work at a summer camp and I start on the 16th and go until the end of August. I know my updates have been kinda sparse the last few months, but I just want you guys to know that you shouldn't be expecting anything until September at the earliest. Again, I want to thank everyone for their support, and even though I won't be updating for a few months, this fic (and the rest of this AU) is not abandoned! Thank you for reading and I love you all~ Have a wonderful summer (or winter if you're in that part of the world) and I'll see you soon!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!!! Did y'all miss me? I surely missed you! And these boys! :D Thank you so much for you patience in my absence, and for putting up with me updating other things before getting to this. This chapter was a lot of fun to write, and I'm sorry if it seems a bit...angsty? 'orz I didn't mean for it to get like that, but I hope the fluff makes up for it. Poor Asahi is just going through some things, I guess... But aren't we all???
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading. Please keep an eye out for any typos or anything you see. Thanks so much! :D

Asahi’s TV played absently in the background as he stared out his apartment window at the half-constructed building next door. It seemed like the renovated complex would never actually be finished, and he couldn’t help but wonder if anyone was even still working on it. 

The toilet flushed, the water ran, and he continued to stare out the window. It wasn’t until the doorknob wiggled, and wiggled some more, and the door refused to open for its occupant that Asahi finally turned around.

“Need some help?” he asked, warm laughter in his voice.

“I got this!” Noya said from inside, grunting. The door finally opened and he stumbled backwards. “You really should get that fixed.”

He had been considering it for a while, but to be fair, he hardly ever closed the door anyway, so it wasn’t really worth the effort of hunting down his landlord in order to find a solution. “But it’s fun to watch you struggle,” he said instead.

Noya grumbled good-naturedly as he gently headbutted Asahi’s chest. He turned his head and looked out the window. “Are they ever gonna finish that building?” he asked as his arms slid around Asahi’s waist.

Shrugging, Asahi wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s shoulders. “Who knows,” he said.

“Honestly, though, I wouldn’t want to work in this weather, either, so I really can’t blame them.”

“If they stopped working every time it rained, nothing would get done in this city.”

“I don’t even remember what the sun looks like. Remind me why I like this city?” He looked up at Asahi, his chin resting on his sternum, and Asahi suddenly became very conscious of his thudding heart.

Asahi smiled as he kissed Noya’s forehead. “I mean, I don’t want to brag,” he said, his breath whispered into Noya’s hairline, “but I like to think I’m pretty great.”

Noya’s arms tightened around Asahi and he buried his face in his sweater. “You are!” he said, voice muffled. “You’re so great, Asahi! You should brag about it more often.”

Asahi chuckled and slid his fingers through Noya’s hair, still damp from the shower he had taken.

Noya heaved a slow breath against the scratchy fabric, the exhale seeping warmly through to Asahi’s skin. “I should get going,” he said after a while, releasing Asahi’s waist and taking a step back.

Asahi let him go and gave him a nod; his boyfriend had a friend-date with Ryuu that he didn’t want to impose upon. “Do you need an umbrella?” Asahi asked.

Noya flipped the hood of his sweatshirt up with a grin. “I’m good,” he said.

Asahi walked him to the door, frowning. “The cotton’s going to make you cold,” he said.

“I’ll be fine,” Noya said as he slipped on his shoes. “You worry too much. Besides, it’s not like I’m walking all the way to the U District. There are things called buses, you know.”

Asahi opened the door for Noya and followed him out, his socked feet brushing against the dirty hallway carpet as they made their way down the stairs. “I just don’t want you to get sick,” he said. “If you get sick, I get sick.”

“Oh, so you only care about yourself?” Noya teased.

Asahi stuck his tongue out and brushed against Noya’s shoulder. 

Noya linked their elbows together for the rest of their descent, holding Asahi close to him and making stairs more difficult than they should have been. Asahi didn’t mind.

At the front door of the complex, Asahi bent down to give Noya a quick kiss. “Have fun,” he said. “Tell Ryuu I say hi.”

Noya jovially patted Asahi’s chest with a smile, pushing himself up on his tiptoes to kiss Asahi again. “I will,” he said.

“Text me later?”

“You know I’m never gonna stop texting you.”

Asahi chuckled; it was true, and he loved it. “Yeah, yeah,” he said, putting a hand on Noya’s shoulder and turning him toward the door. “Now get going before you miss your bus.”

Noya pulled the door open and looked back over his shoulder with a grin.

When the door closed, Asahi returned to the stairs, a soft smile on his face that he couldn’t get rid of even if he thought of every single dead puppy in the world.

He opened his apartment door with a content sigh. As much as he would have loved to spend the entire day hanging around his apartment with Noya, he was trying so very hard to not smother him. Asahi was happy that Noya had someone like Ryuu around; it was the kind of friendship he had always envied but never had, and it made him cautious. A part of him wished that Noya would open up to him more about his past; it felt like he and Ryuu shared some secret that he’d never be clued in on, and he hated that it bothered him so much. He knew that Noya wasn’t purposefully hiding anything from him, but he still found himself lying awake at night with that curious itch in the back of his mind.

He turned off the TV and ran a hand through his loose hair. His phone vibrated somewhere in the mess of his unmade bed and he went to dig it out. It was a Snap from Noya, and when he opened it, he let out a laugh. The picture was a bus pulling away, simply captioned with “oops”. He rolled his eyes and flipped to his messaging app, sitting down of the edge of his bed.

> You’re not working this afternoon, right?

He knew that Daichi was probably currently at work, but since he responded almost immediately, Asahi assumed it couldn’t be that busy.

>> I’m off at one. What’s up?

> Want to get a drink later?

>> Gasp! Asahi! Thinking of drinks before noon?

>> But yeah, of course. Something up?

> Not really. I just feel like I’ve been neglecting our friendship.

>> Aww, Asahi… We’ve both been busy. No worries.

> I know…

>> Not going to say no to drinks, though. Meet me here when I’m off?

> Yeah!

He laid back on his pile of blankets, wanting them to still be warm from Noya’s body, but they had grown cold at least an hour ago. He burritoed himself in them, still holding onto his phone. There was nothing for him to do until meeting up with Daichi, and it was barely even ten. He briefly considered a shower for himself, but wasn’t really feeling it; he had just taken one the night before. But sleeping with Noya curled up next to him had brought on not just extra warmth, but also a small bit of anxiety that caused him to wake up sweatier than usual, and in retrospect, Noya had probably been hoping he’d join him in the shower he’d taken, and then Asahi just felt like an idiot. He probably shouldn’t be allowed to interact with Noya first thing in the morning; it always took him a while to wake up fully, and it was embarrassing how just _not smart_ he could be. He groaned and curled himself further into the blankets.

\--

Asahi walked into the bookstore a little before Daichi’s shift was over and found him boxing up some books behind the counter.

Daichi looked up when the bell jingled and smiled.

Asahi had convinced himself to shower before coming out, and put on a pale sweater to offset his dark jeans. He shook his umbrella out right outside the door before collapsing it, returning his friend’s smile.

“I’m just finishing up,” he said, sliding the box under the counter and walking out from behind it. “You doing alright?”

Asahi wrinkled his brows together as he asked, “Yeah, why?”

Daichi shrugged and wandered toward the back of the store, Asahi following. “Just checking,” he said.

“Are _you_ doing alright?”

Suga emerged from the back room and Asahi watched as Daichi transformed. “Asahi!” Suga said, surprised, but happy to see him.

“I’m going to head out,” Daichi said, stopping in front of Suga. “Unless you need me to do anything else?”

Suga hooked a finger into Daichi’s belt loop and pulled him closer. “Go have fun,” he said, softly kissing Daichi’s cheek. “Nothing much is going to be happening here.” He released Daichi, whose face had turned red, and waved at Asahi before disappearing into one of the aisles.

Daichi ignored the smirk on Asahi’s face as he walked past, grabbing his jacket from behind the counter, and heading outside into the rain. “Anyplace in particular you were thinking?” he asked as the bookstore’s door closed behind him.

Asahi hadn’t given it much thought, and said as much. “You’re more particular than I am,” he added.

Daichi didn’t seem keen on arguing that point and just shrugged, zipping up his jacket and pulling up the hood. Asahi followed as he stepped out onto the sidewalk, opening his umbrella.

Within minutes, hey walked out of the rain and into one of my many restaurants on the Ave. Asahi shook out his umbrella before collapsing it and Daichi hung his jacket on the coatrack before heading to the bar. The entire restaurant was pretty empty at that time of the day, so they had their pick of barstools. Daichi picked one near the end and Asahi took the one next to him.

“How’s Noya?” Daichi asked as they waited for the bartending to tend to them.

“He’s great!” Asahi said, his heart warming just at the thought. “My parents love him, of course.”

Daichi chuckled and poked at the coaster that was sitting in front of him. “I’m not at all surprised,” he said.

“And Suga?”

“I mean, you know Suga!” Daichi said, almost too forcefully and not really giving Asahi a solid answer.

With a smirk, Asahi said, “Not like you do.”

The lighting was dim over the bar, but the redness of Daichi’s face was unmistakable. He was saved by further embarrassment by the bartending coming over and getting their drink orders. As soon as she left, Daichi spoke first, derailing any more talk of his current relationship. “So what else have you been up to?”

Asahi shrugged lightly, not really sure what to say. Talking to Daichi had always been easy, but he felt like something was happening between them that he couldn’t explain. He wanted to talk to Daichi, but he just didn’t know what to talk about, and it frustrated him.

Daichi must have seen the wrinkle in his brow in the dim light. “Is everything alright?” he asked, frowning.

“Yeah,” Asahi said, relaxing his face. “Sorry, I’ve just been…thinking, I guess.”

“About what?” The bartender gave them their drinks without a word and returned to washing other glasses.

All Asahi could do was shrug again as he offered, “I don’t know.”

“About Noya?”

Shrug.

“Work?”

Shrug.

“Money?”

“What?”

It was Daichi’s turn to shrug. “I don’t know, Asahi. You’re not giving me much to work with.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m here to listen, man.”

“I know. I just don’t know what I want to say.” He sighed.

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” After a quiet moment, Daichi lifted his glass toward Asahi.

Asahi smiled and tipped his own glass into Daichi’s. “Thanks.”

They sat there for a while, drinking in silence, a television playing behind the bar. Asahi’s eyes were on it, but his mind wasn’t. He wondered what Noya was up to. His phone had vibrated with a couple of notifications, but he didn’t particularly feel like looking at them.

“Is it weird to be jealous?” Asahi asked suddenly.

Daichi’s mind seemed to have been somewhere else. His head snapped in Asahi’s direction as he asked, “Huh?”

Asahi’s beer was half gone and he tilted the rest of it around the glass. “I just… I think I’m jealous.”

“Of what?”

Asahi chewed on his lip and regretted having said anything. It was stupid. It was stupid to be jealous, and it was stupid to be talking about it.

Daichi nudged his arm. “Asahi…?”

“It’s so unreasonable,” Asahi said. “I mean, Noya and Ryuu have known each other for years, and they have so much history. I just wish that Noya would talk to me about shit, you know? I just don’t know how else to tell him that I’m here for him. I keep telling him that he doesn’t have to tell me anything he doesn’t want to, and I feel bad for wanting to know, but I just want to understand. You know?” He looked over at Daichi, whose face was mostly blank.

Daichi looked down at his own glass before lifting it and swallowed down the last bit. “I don’t really know what you want me to say, Asahi,” he said.

“I’m sorry.”

Daichi nudged him. “Stop that,” he said with a slight grin. “But really, I think you just need to give it time. Noya likes you, man. He really does. Anyone can see that. I don’t know what he’s got in that past of his, but I know he’s not purposefully hiding it. Some things just take time.” The bartender came back and offered Daichi a refill, which he accepted.

When he turned back to Asahi, the soft smile on Daichi’s face made him believe that he had experience with this sort of thing. He knew Daichi was right. “And I know that,” Asahi said. “That’s why it’s so unreasonable.”

Daichi put an arm around Asahi’s shoulder. “It sucks, man, it really does.”

“Yeah.”

There was a pause as the bartender returned with Daichi’s new beer, and he took a drink.

“So how’s Suga?” he asked again.

Daichi nearly choked on his beer. “Great,” he said, then rolled his eyes. “Embarrassing as always.”

“Good,” Asahi said. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and Daichi noticed it in the silence.

“Are you ever going to look at those?” he asked.

Asahi sighed. “Yeah,” he said. “Eventually.” Despite his words, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

Of course all the notifications were from Noya; mostly texts and a couple snaps of him and Ryuu being him and Ryuu. It tugged at his heart, but it also made him smile. He knew that he wasn’t the only one that could make Noya happy, no matter how hard he tried. He just wished that his heart understood that as much as his brain did.

He sighed and set his phone down on the bar. “I love him so much,” he said.

Daichi patted his shoulder. “I know you do,” he said.

Asahi finished his drink and declined a refill just as his phone vibrated with another notification.

>> Can I come back over tonight?

Daichi peered over Asahi’s shoulder at the text.

Asahi shoved him away before responding, making sure that he was putting his attention on his beer instead of Asahi’s phone.

> Yes!!!

>> Lol so eager

>> Me n ryuu r almost done broing

>> Ill let u know when im headed over

> I’m near work right now. If you want me to hang out here until you’re done, we can go to my place together.

>> Ok perf!

>> Ill see you soon then!!

>> <3

Asahi smiled and looked over to see Daichi giving him a knowing look. “You’re no better,” he said, punching his friend’s arm lightly and lovingly.

Daichi chuckled. “Yeah, I know,” he said, not fighting the blush that rose up in his cheeks.

Asahi waved the bartender over and asked for his check. Daichi got his, too.

“You’re going to be okay,” Daichi said, taking another drink. His eyes were on the TV again, but his focus was on Asahi. “You’ve got your whole life to learn about each other. Don’t rush it.”

Asahi nodded and couldn’t help but wonder if Daichi was giving himself advice, too. “Thanks.”

\--

Asahi waited outside the Starbucks after Daichi took his leave. It wasn’t too long before Ryuu’s car pulled up at the curb and Noya rolled down his window.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said, leaning out into the drizzle. “Want a ride?”

Asahi stood there for a moment, staring dumbly at him. “Uh?” He wasn’t sure what he had expected.

Ryuu laughed from the driver’s seat and leaned over, beckoning to Asahi. “C’mon, man, get in!” he said. “No charge.”

Asahi obliged and climbed into the backseat, collapsing his umbrella as he did so. Thankfully, Ryuu’s family Prius was bigger than it looked from the outside, and there was plenty of room for his legs; it seemed liked Noya’s seat was moved up pretty far, but it wasn’t like he needed much room anyway. 

He had barely shut the door and hadn’t even touched his seatbelt before Ryuu pulled away from the curb and into the afternoon traffic.

“Sorry for the jostle,” Ryuu said in a way that didn’t sound apologetic at all, peering at Asahi in the rearview mirror.

Asahi clicked his seatbelt in and only felt marginally safer. Noya turned around in the front seat and smiled back at him. “I figured it’d be quicker back to your place if Ryuu drove instead of taking the bus,” he said. “Plus, it’s wet, and wet strangers are the worst.”

Asahi couldn’t disagree. “Buses seem safer, though,” he said.

“Ryuu’s a great driver,” Noya said, looking over at his friend. 

“I learned to drive on these city streets,” Ryuu said. “These roads are in my veins.”

“I’m trusting you,” Asahi said, though he wasn’t sure how much he meant it. He, too, had learned to drive on these streets, and always did so with caution. He supposed that there were two kinds of city drivers, though, and he was the one who was always on the lookout for Ryuu’s type.

Noya gave him one more smile, one that might’ve had a tiny bit of sympathy in it, and turned back to face forward.

Asahi closed his eyes and held onto the oh shit handle for the rest of the drive, thankful that Noya knew the way to his apartment.

Ryuu dropped them off outside of the apartment building and drove off with a wave and a wink. 

“See, we made it just fine,” Noya said with a grin as Asahi dug in his pockets for his keys. Noya pulled out his phone and looked at the time before adding, “And in great time, too!”

Asahi opened the front door and wiped his feet on the mat before heading for the stairs. He felt vaguely nauseous. “I don’t have your stomach,” he said. “Though I commend you for braving that experience regularly.” Noya’s laughter made the nausea worth it, though, and he couldn’t help but smile as he unlocked his apartment door.

Noya stripped off his soaked hoodie and dropped it next to the door. “What do you wanna do tonight?” he asked, flopping down on Asahi’s bed and kicking off his shoes. 

Asahi slid his own shoes off and into his shoe pile, noting that the shoulders of Noya’s t-shirt were damp. His own sweater had stayed dry, so he joined Noya on the bed just as he was. “I’ve got nothing particular in mind,” he said, wrapping his arms around Noya’s waist and pulling him close. “You’re going to get sick if you stay in damp clothes, though.”

Noya laughed. “You just want to get me outta my clothes, don’t you?” he asked, turning himself so that he was looking at Asahi. Despite his playful tone, he was blushing, and Asahi found that so incredibly endearing.

He chuckled. “I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do,” he said. “But I also don’t want you getting sick. Do you want one of my shirts?”

“Do you _want_ me to be swimming?” Noya shot back.

Asahi considered it for a moment. He didn’t want Noya to get sick, and he didn’t want Noya to be uncomfortable, and he also had to admit that tiny Noya would look so great in one of his much-too-large shirts, and he wasn’t sure if he could handle it. But he nodded and simply said, “Yes.”

Noya opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as Asahi pushed himself off the bed.

He went over to his closet to get a shirt and heard Noya sit up, expecting him to say something, but getting nothing. He poked through his shirts trying to decide which one would look best on Noya. There was an older button-down shirt, soft from age but still in good condition. He pulled it off the hanger and turned back to Noya, who looked nervous. Asahi frowned. “Are you okay?” he asked, walking over and sitting down next to him.

“Yeah,” Noya said, laughing a bit. It wasn’t the kind of laugh that made Asahi’s stomach twist. It was an unsure laugh, something to fill a silence instead of words that were wanting to be said. 

“Here.” Asahi handed him the shirt and stood up again. “I’ll, uhm…”

Noya laughed, and this time it was more genuine. “Asahi, you’ve seen me naked,” he said, standing up. “You don’t have to be shy now.”

Asahi could feel his cheeks reddening and he sat back down. “S-sorry,” he muttered.

Noya leaned over and kissed him, his lips slightly chapped from the chill and stiff with a smile. “I love you,” he said.

Asahi blinked slowly as Noya straightened back up, a smile on his own lips now, and muttered back, “I love you, too.”

Noya grinned as he stripped off his damp t-shirt and dropped it on the floor. Asahi was amazed by just how small he was, slender in every possible way, his pale skin covered with a mixture of dark and vibrant ink that swirled in patterns of flowers and vines and crows. A white binder covered part of Asahi’s personal favorite bit of artwork, the small set of black wings that stretched out onto his arms.

When his eyes made their way back up to Noya’s face, Asahi saw he was blushing but had that trademarked Nishinoya grin.

“You can touch if you want,” he offered, stepping a little closer to the bed.

Asahi’s face heated even more. “Are you sure?” he asked.

Noya laughed and sat back down next to Asahi. “Of course I’m sure, you dummy,” he said, putting an arm around Asahi’s shoulder.

He wasn’t sure why he still felt so awkward. He liked Noya, he liked Noya a lot, in fact. He just wasn’t sure if this was what he wanted. He readjusted both of them so that they were laying down again, Noya’s mostly-bare back against his sweatered chest and one arm around Noya’s waist. “This is all I want right now,” he said into Noya’s hair.

Noya nodded and laced his fingers together with Asahi’s. “Okay,” he said, satisfied. “But if I get sick from not wearing any clothes, it’s your fault.”

Asahi stiffened and almost sat up, but otherwise didn’t move. After a moment, he pulled Noya even closer. “I’ll keep you warm.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!! Please come visit me on [Tumblr](http://tiredasahi.tumblr.com) if you wanna chat or yell at me or check out writing update or whatever. uwu I appreciate every single one of you and your support means the world to me! :D


End file.
